Saudi Arabia has killed two Bahrainis accused of plotting terrorist operations, state media said on Monday, raising the number of executions to nine this month.
According to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the Bahraini nationals Jaafar Sultan and Sadiq Thamer had been charged with "joining a terrorist cell led by a man wanted in Bahrain."
The authorities in Bahrain did not respond right away.
Nine people convicted of terrorism have been executed in Saudi Arabia since May 2, all in the eastern region, where the Shiite minority is concentrated.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world's most prolific users of the death penalty.
There have been in excess of 40 executions in Saudi Arabia up to this point this year, as per an AFP count in view of state media reports.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 147 individuals - - including 81 on a single day for terrorism-related offenses, an event that sparked an international outcry.
The Saudi Arabian Press Agency (SPA) added that the two Bahrainis "received training in camps belonging to terrorist entities aiming to destabilise the security of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain."
They were likewise blamed for helping "terrorists" in Saudi Arabia by smuggling explosive materials and supporting intends to complete terrorist attacks in the kingdom and in adjoining Bahrain.
Al-Wefaq, the main Shiite opposition group in Bahrain, branded the executions a "crime."
As per Amnesty International, Sultan and Thamer were arrested in Saudi Arabia on May 8, 2015. They were condemned to death in October 2021 following "a deeply flawed trial based on torture-tainted confessions", the rights group said last May.
In June 2022, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions sent a letter to Saudi authorities, urging them to "halt any possible step towards the execution" of the two men and "ensure that they are re-tried in conformity with international law and standards".
According to a report that was released earlier this year by Reprieve and the European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, more than 1,000 people have been executed since King Salman took power in 2015.
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