![An elderly couple walks on November 12th, 2019 past the main gate of King Abdullah Park where a Yemeni expatriate stabbed three performers during a live play in the Saudi capital Riyadh the previous day. [Fayez Nureldine/AFP]](/cnmi_am/images/2020/04/16/23576-Saudi-Riyadh-attack-700_496.webp)
Saudi Arabia on Thursday (April 16th) executed a Yemeni man convicted over a knife attack on a Spanish theatre group, the interior ministry said.
The man, identified as Imad al-Mansouri, had been sentenced to death for the November 11th attack during a live performance in Riyadh, which state media linked to militant group al-Qaeda and which Madrid said left four performers wounded.
"The death sentence was carried out... in Riyadh," the ministry said in a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency.
The assailant was accused of going on a stabbing spree during a musical in the capital's King Abdullah Park, one of the venues hosting the two-month "Riyadh Season" entertainment festival.
It was the first such assault since the country began easing restrictions on entertainment.
The state-run Al-Ekhbariya television said the attacker took orders from an al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, but so far there has been no claim of responsibility from the group.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition supporting the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Houthis (Ansarallah) and has also been involved in the fight against al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is active in Yemen, is considered by the US as the radical group's most dangerous branch.
