“This regime wears the garb of Islam, but is in reality at the service of the Zionist project. All the betrayal that has been committed by Arab states in the Persian Gulf would not have been possible without the approval of Saudi Arabia,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Sunday, a day after the Saudi regime executed up to to 81 prisoners for “acts related to terrorism”. misdemeanors”.

The biggest mass execution by the highly conservative Arab kingdom in recent memory has sparked a strong wave of condemnation from a range of Islamic and Saudi opposition groups, who said most of those executed were imprisoned solely for exercising their right to free expression of opinion.

Hezbollah said the ruling Al Saud regime had committed a heinous crime against the oppressed people of the Arabian Peninsula.

“This is an additional crime in the criminal record of the Saudi regime, which has always committed murder and bloodshed.” This criminal record extends from Yemen to Iraq, including Syria, Lebanon and all Arab and Muslim countries, Hezbollah said.

The resistance movement called on all religious figures, clerics and international organizations to denounce the “terrorist regime”.

Executions in 2022 exceeded the total number of death sentences in Saudi Arabia throughout last year.

The kingdom’s latest mass execution took place in early January 2016, when Saudi authorities executed 47 people, including prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who had vehemently called for democracy in the kingdom and advocated protests. anti-diet. Nimr was arrested in Qatif, Eastern Province, in 2012.

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed more than 900 prisoners at an increasing rate. In 2019 alone, Saudi Arabia set a record number of executions after authorities executed 184 people, despite a general decrease in the number of executions worldwide.

In April 2020, Reprieve, a UK-based nonprofit, said Saudi Arabia had carried out its 800th execution. The report adds that executions have almost doubled in just five years compared to the 423 executions carried out in Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2014.

The Eastern Province, largely populated by the Shia minority, has been the scene of peaceful protests since February 2011. Protesters demand reforms, freedom of speech, the release of political prisoners and an end to economic and religious discrimination against oil. rich region. The protests were met with brutal repression by the regime.

In recent years, Riyadh has also redefined its counterterrorism laws to target activism.