Saudi Arabia just hit another grim record, marking two straight years of increasing state killings. The current yearly total has reached at least 347 executions, edging out last year’s number, according to data from the activist organization Reprieve. This year’s victims included two Pakistani men convicted on drug charges, a journalist, and two individuals who were minors during their alleged protest-related crimes. Five of those executed were women.
The majority of these killings, about two-thirds, stemmed from non-violent drug offenses, a practice international bodies condemn. Over half of the executed were foreign nationals, caught up in what appears to be an intensified narcotics crackdown. Reprieve’s head of death penalty issues for the region, Jeed Basyouni, described a system operating with impunity, labeling torture and forced confessions as standard. She criticized the process as a brutal arbitrary campaign disproportionately impacting marginalized people and the innocent, citing the recent execution of an Egyptian fisherman, Issam al-Shazly, who claimed coercion. The surge follows the end of an unofficial halt on such executions in late 2022.
Families are often not warned beforehand, nor are bodies returned, with beheading or firing squads believed to be the common method. The de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman has pursued social reforms and economic diversification while maintaining, as Human Rights Watch calls it, an abysmal human rights record. Critics note no meaningful international repercussions for these actions despite global scrutiny. Specific cases drew particular outrage, like the executions of Saudi nationals Abdullah al-Derazi and Jalal al-Labbad, sentenced for protest actions as teenagers after trials allegedly based on confessions extracted via torture. The UN and other rights groups have repeatedly called for a moratorium, emphasizing violations of legal safeguards and fair trial standards. Saudi authorities, in prior correspondence, have defended their judicial process and human rights protections, insisting capital punishment is reserved for the most serious crimes and applied only after exhaustive legal reviews.
The majority of these killings, about two-thirds, stemmed from non-violent drug offenses, a practice international bodies condemn. Over half of the executed were foreign nationals, caught up in what appears to be an intensified narcotics crackdown. Reprieve’s head of death penalty issues for the region, Jeed Basyouni, described a system operating with impunity, labeling torture and forced confessions as standard. She criticized the process as a brutal arbitrary campaign disproportionately impacting marginalized people and the innocent, citing the recent execution of an Egyptian fisherman, Issam al-Shazly, who claimed coercion. The surge follows the end of an unofficial halt on such executions in late 2022.
Families are often not warned beforehand, nor are bodies returned, with beheading or firing squads believed to be the common method. The de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman has pursued social reforms and economic diversification while maintaining, as Human Rights Watch calls it, an abysmal human rights record. Critics note no meaningful international repercussions for these actions despite global scrutiny. Specific cases drew particular outrage, like the executions of Saudi nationals Abdullah al-Derazi and Jalal al-Labbad, sentenced for protest actions as teenagers after trials allegedly based on confessions extracted via torture. The UN and other rights groups have repeatedly called for a moratorium, emphasizing violations of legal safeguards and fair trial standards. Saudi authorities, in prior correspondence, have defended their judicial process and human rights protections, insisting capital punishment is reserved for the most serious crimes and applied only after exhaustive legal reviews.
