DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia executed three soldiers on Saturday convicted of “high treason” and “co-operation with the enemy”, according to a statement from the kingdom’s defense ministry.
He said the three were sentenced to death by a specialized court after a fair trial.
The ministry did not call the alleged “enemy”, but the executions took place in the southern province on the border with Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been at war for more than six years against the Houthi movement aligned with Iran.
Saudi Arabia has come under increasing global scrutiny over its human rights record since the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul and the detention of women’s rights activists.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have called on Riyadh to stop using the death penalty, citing allegations of torture and unfair trials.
Saudi Arabia denies the allegations.
It executed 27 people in 2020, the lowest in years, down from a record 185 years earlier, according to the Commission on Human Rights, a government agency.
Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Clelia Oziel