Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The regime executed 37 people on Tuesday.
Credit: Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Royal Court/Reuters

Their crimes were unclear — but their sentences were swift and brutal.

On Tuesday, 37 people were beheaded in Saudi Arabia after being tried on vague charges of terrorism.

According to human rights groups, many of those executed were Shia men who were convicted in sham trials and subjected to torture. Some had allegedly been involved in protests against the Saudi regime.

Many of them were simply young activists and protesters, says Ali Al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident and director of the Gulf Institute think-tank.

Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off.

What do you know about the scene that unfolded yesterday in Saudi Arabia when these executions took place? 

Usually these executions take place in public. But we have no indication they were carried in public. Mostly they were carried inside prisons and by beheadings and dismemberment.

One individual was dismembered and displayed for the public.