US-bound student among 37 beheaded in Saudi Arabia

A student who planned to attend a U.S. university was among the 37 Saudi nationals who were beheaded on Tuesday. 

Mujtaba al-Sweikat was detained at Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Airport in 2012 while planning to visit Western Michigan University, where he had been accepted, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Al-Sweikat, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, allegedly went to a pro-democracy rally earlier that year. 

The newspaper reports that he was on a list of people beheaded by Saudi Arabia released from the Saudi Press Agency.

{mosads}Sweikat was accused of armed disobedience against the king, in addition to attacking, shooting and injuring security forces, civilians and passersby. Authorities also charged him with destroying public property, causing chaos and disrupting the peace by participating in a terrorist cell to make and deliver Molotov cocktails. 

The human rights group Reprieve says Sweikat, along with others, were tortured into confessing to the crimes. 

Thirty-seven Saudi prisoners were executed Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman approved the killings in a royal decree, according to The Associated Press. The country’s Interior Ministry said the prisoners had extremist ideologies and had created terrorist cells, the AP reported.

It also said they were convicted and ordered killed by a court specializing in terrorism trials as well as by Saudi Arabia’s high court.