In an interview broadcast on Saudi state television on Friday, Abdulrahman Al Sudais, a senior figure in Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment, said that anyone who opposes the government is outside the religion of the Saudi state, in a clear reference to such individuals being regarded as unbelievers.

The official religious doctrine of the Saudi state and the Al Saud ruling family is Wahhabism, which is followed by a minority of Saudi citizens, all of whom are concentrated in the Riyadh region.

Political opponents are commonly subjected to execution by beheading, or to the dismemberment of their bodies, as occurred in the case of Jamal Khashoggi and many other political and human rights activists in the country.