Saudi Arabia killed 81 people for "following in the path of Satan" in the Kingdom's biggest execution in decades.
The faces of dozens of Saudi citizens killed by the regime at the weekend have been shared widely on social media and Arabic news sites.
The government said the men were put to death for "following in the path of Satan" and "because their hands were stained with "innocent blood", another Saudi publication claimed.
Many of the Saudis and seven Yemenis killed had been on death row for violent crimes. One Syrian national was also executed.
Among the offences listed by the Saudi Interior Ministry were the murder and "mutilation" of Saudi security agents, conspiracy to blow up an oil refinery, and the smuggling of arms and explosives into the Kingdom.
However, human rights groups have slammed the killings - claiming there were prisoners sentenced to death for non-violent crimes.
The statement released by the Saudi Press Ageny said: "By the grace of God, the security authorities were able to arrest those criminal elements whose hands were stained with the blood of innocents, and their thoughts and actions were polluted with treachery to this country.
"The competent court, and enabling them to enjoy all the guarantees and rights guaranteed to them by the regulations in the Kingdom, were issued against them documents proving their conviction of what was attributed to them, as follows:"
The interior ministry then listed each of the condemned and their crimes.
Many of the men had been linked to terrorist organisations like ISIS and Al-Houthi, the statement adds.
The majority of the condemned had long rap sheets. One was accused of murdering a Saudi security agent, before wounding another and "destroying public property" after causing a riot.
Another Saudi national was wanted on charges of kidnapping, torturing and murdering a security agent.
He then allegedly formed terror cells in the country before spilling "innocent blood, money and honour" and going on to "torture and rape" others.
A group of seven Saudi nationals were also put to death for "several crimes", including gunning down citizens and their children in a village during Ramadan.
The men included 37 Saudi nationals who were found guilty in a single case for attempting to assassinate security officers and targeting police stations and convoys, the statement added.
Another group was slain for "communicating with a foreign entity" with intentions of "harming the state" by sending them coordinates of government agency sites.
They were killed for "covering up people belonging to terrorist groups, breaching the trust, and infiltrating the Kingdom to carry out terrorist acts by targeting security men and planting mines, and participating in smuggling weapons and hand grenades."
The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported there during all of 2021 and the 27 reported in 2020.
The Ministry did not say how the executions were carried out.
Meanwhile, rights groups have slammed Boris Johnson for pushing forward with plans to visit the Kingdom just days after the mass slaughter.
Polly Truscott, Amnesty International UK’s Foreign Affairs Human Rights Adviser, said: “The shocking news about mass executions in Saudi Arabia makes it more important than ever that the Prime Minister challenges the Saudi authorities over their absolutely appalling human rights record and that he speaks publicly about human rights during this trip.
“In particular, Boris Johnson should raise the need for Saudi Arabia to end its repression of human rights defenders - including by releasing prisoners of conscience and ensuring that lengthy travel bans are lifted for people like Loujain al-Hathloul and Raif Badawi.
“Understandably much of the world’s attention is currently focused on Ukraine, but Saudi Arabia mustn’t be allowed a free pass over the civilians being killed by Saudi coalition airstrikes in Yemen.
“The key point is that Saudi oil shouldn’t be allowed to buy the world’s silence over Saudi Arabia’s terrible human rights record.”
The mass execution is likely to bring back attention to Saudi Arabia's human rights record - at a time when world powers have been focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of enforcing restrictive laws on political and religious expression.
These groups have also criticised the nation for using the death penalty - including on defendants arrested when they were minors.
Soraya Bauwens, deputy director of anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, said in a statement: "There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes."
She added: "We fear for every one of them following this brutal display of impunity."
Saudi Arabia denies accusations of human rights abuses and says it protects its national security through its laws.
