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Saudi Arabia Sees Record-High Executions Driven by Drug Sentences and Sectarian Bias
- On July 7, 2025, Amnesty International released a report revealing a significant increase in the number of executions carried out in Saudi Arabia, with a notable portion involving drug-related crimes.
- The surge follows the lifting in November 2022 of a 33-month moratorium on drug-related executions that began in January 2021.
- In 2024, Saudi Arabia executed a record 345 people—the highest annual figure recorded by Amnesty in over 30 years—and 180 people were executed in the first half of 2025.
- Approximately one-third of all executions over a ten-year period involved drug-related crimes, with foreign nationals accounting for roughly 75% of these cases; notably, 37 out of 46 executions carried out in June 2025 were connected to drug offences.
- The report urges Saudi Arabia's allies to pressure authorities to halt the execution spree, noting international law prohibits the death penalty for drug offences and minors, while the kingdom offers no explanation for the rise.
61 Articles
61 Articles
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.
According to Amnesty International, 180 people were executed in Saudi Arabia in the first six months of the year.
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