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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Saturday mass executed 81 people
By Sommer Brokaw
Saudi Arabia flag is shown. File photo by Gil C/Shutterstock
March 12 (UPI) --
The execution of 81 people in a single day is believed to be the biggest mass execution in the history of the country, surpassing a mass execution in 1980 when 63 people were convicted and beheaded for seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, Deutsche Welle reported.
The executions on Saturday were carried out based on sentences of capital punishment for convictions of terrorism and capital crimes, Saudi's Ministry of Interior announced in the country's state-run Saudi Press Agency.
Among the crimes committed that the ministry announced were the murder of "innocent men, women and children" and aligning with terrorist groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and Houthis, targeting Saudi residents.
The ministry also announced that the individual crimes included targeting government personnel, the killing and maiming of law enforcement officers, planting bombs that targeted their vehicles and the smuggling of arms and bombs into the country. Other charges included kidnapping, torture and rape.
The individuals who were executed were found guilty of "committing multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilian and law enforcement officers dead," the SPA reported.
Each individual was seen by 13 judges over three separate stages of trial and provided with an attorney, according to the SPA.
Still, a Britain-based campaign group advocating for justice and human rights, Reprieve, condemned the mass execution.
"The world should know by now that when Mohammed Bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow," Reprieve said in a series of tweets condemning the mass execution on Saturday.
"Just last week the Crown Prince told journalists he plans to modernize Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system, only to order the largest mass execution in the country's history," Reprieve continued. "There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes. We fear for everyone of them following this brutal display of impunity."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia "soon, to beg for Saudi oil to replace Russian gas," Reprieve added.
"We cannot show our revulsion for Putin's atrocities by rewarding those of the Crown Prince," Repreive said. "Johnson must speak up and condemn these killings."
ISIS fanatic is jailed for spreading extremist propaganda
and faking university degree to get hospital job
By CHARLOTTE MCLAUGHLIN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 15:07 EDT, 14 March 2022
Ali Abdillahi, 31, put recordings of an Islamist extremist preacher who advocates armed jihad, and two ISIS propaganda videos showing executions and graphic violence online, the Old Bailey was told.
The view count of the material uploaded to instant messaging app Telegram in July 2020 ranged from 280 to 1,300, the court was also told.
A notebook also revealed his extremist mindset and a 'pledge of allegiance' to Isis was uncovered on his mobile phone.
Abdillahi admitted disseminating a terrorist publication, perverting the course of justice and fraud by false representation and has been sentenced to eight years and 10 months in jail.
Ali Abdillahi, 31, pictured, disseminated terrorist propaganda over instant messaging app Telegram
in July 2020, the Old Bailey was told
In July 2020, he also put fake details on his CV saying he had a biomedical science degree from the University of Hertfordshire to get work as a cardiographer through an agency, the court was told. If it was not for a forged certificate and false details on his CV, Abdillahi would not have got the job at South London's Croydon University Hospital.
However, there were no concerns raised about his work and he earned £2,100 before his employment ended upon his arrest in August 2020.
On Monday, Mr Justice Sweeney jailed him for eight years for disseminating terrorist publications, plus 10 months for perverting the course of justice.
Mr Sweeney said: ‘This is one of the more serious cases of its type. You had showed you committed these offences because of your support for Islamic extremism.’
He added a further three years on extended licence but imposed no separate sentence for the fraud charge.
Justice Sweeney said Abdillahi supported the concept of ‘Armed Jihad’, and viewed IS as the ‘inheritor of Islam’.
On Monday, at the Old Bailey, pictured, Mr Justice Sweeney jailed him for eight years for disseminating terrorist publications, plus 10 months for perverting the course of justice
Detectives had discovered an invitation-only Telegram group called ‘Sons of Abdullah’ set up by Abdillahi. The videos showed a Syrian pilot being set on fire while alive, beheadings, suicide attacks and people being thrown from roofs.
Abdillahi's devices were seized and examined after he was arrested at his home in Enfield, north London, August 7 2020 and charged 11 days later.
The Dutch national, of Colgate Place, Enfield, admitted five counts of disseminating a terrorist publication on the second day of his trial last November.
He had previously admitted perverting the course of justice by pretending to have a biomedical science degree from the University of Hertfordshire as part of a bail bid.
He also claimed to be studying for a master's degree but withdrew his application after investigations showed the information was false.
Abdillahi admitted a further charge of fraud by false representation.
Wearing thick-rimmed black glasses and a black suit, Abdillahi, who was born in Somalia and has lived in the UK since the age of seven, spoke only to confirm his identity as he stood in the dock at the Old Bailey. Friends and family looked down from the public gallery as the hearing went on.
Asked by officers why he did it, he claimed he never intended to deceive anyone and had been off his medications. ‘I believe I created a character for myself, and looking back, I do not know what is real and what is not,’ he said. ‘I was convinced I had a degree. My intention was not to lie or anything like that.’
Commander Richard Smith, who leads the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said: 'Extremist propaganda online is extremely harmful and is a means by which terrorist groups seek to radicalise people all over the world.
'Abdillahi sent videos and recordings glorifying extremist violence to promote the hate-filled mindset he supported to others.
'Covid-19 restrictions were in force when the investigation was launched but this did not stop officers acting quickly and building a strong case against Abdillahi.'
British charity worker freed in Iran, returns home
after 6 years in prison
By Clyde Hughes
March 16 (UPI) -- A British-Iranian woman who's an executive for a charity has been released after six years in captivity and was allowed to return to Britain, officials said on Wednesday.
Iranian authorities sentenced Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, to a five-year sentence in 2016 after accusing her of trying to overthrow the government in Tehran. She was in the city visiting family.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the British government have long denied the charges.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been released -- along with Anoosheh Ashoori, a woman who was arrested and jailed in Iran in 2017 on spying charges.
"I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the U.K.," Johnson said in a tweet.
"The U.K. has worked intensively to secure their release and I am delighted they will be reunited with their families and loved ones."
British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq also said that before she left Iran, Zaghari-Ratcliffe had remained "under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."
Along with her original sentence, Iranian authorities gave Zaghari-Ratcliffe a second jail sentence last April for purportedly spreading propaganda against the Iranian government. She lost an appeal in October.
Sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe said Wednesday was an emotional day.
"It feels like we're on the home run now but until she leaves that airport we can't believe it," Ratcliffe said before Zaghari-Ratcliffe left the country, according to BBC News.
Both women are home today, St Patrick's Day, in the UK.
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