US EditionSaudi Arabia Sees Record-High Executions Driven by Drug Sentences and Sectarian Bias
SAUDI ARABIA, JUL 7 – Saudi Arabia executed 345 people in 2024, with about one-third for drug-related offences, disproportionately affecting foreign nationals, Amnesty International reported.
- Saudi Arabia executed 345 people in 2024, marking the highest number recorded by Amnesty International in over three decades.
- The surge follows the lifting of a 33-month moratorium on drug-related executions in November 2022, after it was announced in January 2021.
- Nearly one third of executions were for drug-related offenses, with about three quarters involving foreign nationals from countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, and Jordan.
- Amnesty International condemned the recent increase in executions in Saudi Arabia, criticizing the country’s pattern of holding unfair trials and emphasizing that such practices reveal a profound disrespect for human life.
- The continuation of executions suggests ongoing human rights concerns, with Amnesty calling for international pressure to halt the spree and establish a moratorium pending abolition.
65 Articles
65 Articles
Human rights group condemns recent string of executions in Saudi Arabia over drug-related offenses
Amnesty International condemned on Monday a surge in executions in Saudi Arabia in recent years, highlighting particular concern for capital punishment used in cases of drug-related offenses and the difficulty of foreign nationals in accessing a fair trial. “Saudi Arabia’s relentless and ruthless use of the death penalty after grossly unfair trials not only demonstrates a chilling disregard for human life; its application for drug-related offens…
In 2024, 345 executions were recorded, the highest number so far, and the pace in 2025 is already set to exceed that record.
The death penalty is used much more frequently in Saudi Arabia than it was a few years ago. This year, 180 people were executed from January to June, Amnesty International reports. Last year, an average of almost every day, a death sentence was also carried out in the kingdom, with 345 executions. That is the highest number of executions in Saudi Arabia in thirty years, the human rights organization concludes in a 57-page report. The researchers…
Amnesty International is reporting increasing numbers of executions in Saudi Arabia. The human rights situation is casting a shadow over the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
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