(Detroit News)
Sarah Rahal and Francis X. Donnelly April 24, 2019 11:38 a.m.
A student considering attending Western Michigan University was among 37 people beheaded in a mass execution in Saudi Arabia for what authorities there described as terrorism-related crimes.
It marked the largest number of executions in a single day in Saudi Arabia since Jan. 2, 2016, when the kingdom executed 47 individuals in what was the largest mass execution carried out by Saudi Arabia since 1980.
Mujtaba Al-Sweikat attended several pro-democracy protests between 2011 and 2012 in Saudi Arabia, one of the five top executing countries in the world for more than a decade, according to Reprieve U.S., an international human rights group.
He was arrested in December 2012 while getting on a plane to visit WMU. At the time, he was 17 and allegedly was tortured by Saudi officials with cigarette burns and a beating that left his shoulder broken in an effort to get a “confession,” according to Reprieve officials.
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