- Saudi Arabia's 2024 executions hit a 30-year high, contradicting Crown Prince's 2022 death penalty claims
- Approximately 33% of executions were for drug-related crimes, often non-lethal under international law
- Foreign nationals accounted for 75% of drug-related executions, facing legal and social vulnerabilities
Despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's past promises to restrict the death penalty to intentional killings, Saudi Arabia is once again carrying out executions at a high rate, many of them for non-lethal drug offences. Recently, 8 men in Saudi Arabia were executed in a single day. Out of these, four Somalis and three Ethiopians were executed "for smuggling hashish into the kingdom."
Foreign nationals appear to be disproportionately affected. Under the tazir, an Islamic legal principle that gives judges wide discretion in sentencing, Saudi courts continue to hand down death sentences at an alarming rate.
The renewed wave of executions has raised concerns among human rights groups.
A Decade Of Escalation
According to a new Amnesty International report published in July and data from the official Saudi Press Agency, the kingdom has executed 1,816 people between January 2014 and June 2025. Approximately, one in three were executed for drug-related offences, which are offences that may not be punished by death under international human rights law and standards.
Here Are Some Key Figures:
- Total executions (2014-June 2025): 1,816
- Drug-related executions (2014-2025): 597
- Share of drug-related executions: 32.9%
- Foreign nationals among those executed for drugs: 75%
- Executions in 2024 alone: 345 (highest in 30+ years)
- Drug-related executions in 2024: 122 (35% of total)
- Foreign nationals executed in 2024: 137 from 15 countries
- Executions from January-June 2025: 180
- Executions in June 2025: 46
- Drug-related executions in June 2025: 37
Rise In Tazir-Based Executions
Tazir crimes have no fixed punishments in sharia, nor do they have clear definitions under other laws in the country. Therefore, judges have discretion to determine sentences for offences that have no fixed punishments, including the death penalty, without being bound by judicial precedent.
Despite public statements to the contrary, judges in Saudi Arabia continue to use tazir to impose death sentences, even in non-lethal cases. This stands in direct contradiction to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's 2022 claim that executions would be limited to offences explicitly mandated in the Quran.
Number Of Tazir Executions:
- Total tazir-based executions (January 2014-June 2025): 862
- Share of all executions: 47.5%
- Tazir executions in 2019 alone: 130
- Executions for drug offences in 2019: 84
- Tazir executions for drug offences in 2024: 122
- Tazir executions for drug offences January-June 2025: 118
- Average: 1 execution every other day
- In 2019, tazir accounted for 71% of all executions
Foreign Nationals: The Most Vulnerable Targets
Foreign workers from low-income backgrounds face the greatest risk of execution, who are often with inadequate legal representation, no consular support, and language barriers. The limited education and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds of the foreign nationals on death row increases their risk of exploitation in their migration and makes it more difficult for them to access legal representation in Saudi Arabia, the Amnesty International in its report explained.
Execution data by nationality in the last 10 years
- Pakistanis: 155
- Syrians: 66
- Jordanians: 50
- Yemenis: 39
- Egyptians: 33
- Nigerians: 32
- Somalis: 22
- Ethiopians: 13
Several others remain at imminent risk of execution. In June, UN experts urged Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of 26 Egyptian nationals on death row in Tabouk prison for drug offences. Two men from this group were executed in May, without prior notice to their families.
War On Drugs And Captagon Crisis
While Saudi Arabia cites its "war on drugs" to justify the executions, the country continues to witness significant drug trafficking and large-scale seizures.
According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published in June, countries of the Arabian Peninsula remain the primary destination markets for captagon. However, a lack of official reporting of aggregated data from Saudi Arabia since 2022 has made it difficult to carry out a comprehensive regional trend analysis, because almost two thirds (67 per cent) of captagon tablets seized in the region between 2012 and 2021 were reported by that country.
Several large seizures reported in late 2024 and early 2025 in neighbouring countries such as Iraq and Jordan, as well as Saudi Arabia, point to the continued use of established trafficking routes.
In the past decade, captagon trade exploded across the Middle East (2018-2022), peaking in 2021. In the last 10 years in Saudi Arabia:-
- 700 million+ narcotic pills seized
- 100,000+ kg of other drugs (methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine) confiscated
In 2023, the Crown Prince formally declared a war on drugs. Since then, mass arrests and executions have followed in rapid succession.
Recent Arrests
Saudi Arabia ramped up its anti-drug crackdown in June and July 2025, with major arrests and seizures reported across multiple regions. Dozens were detained, including foreign nationals, in operations targeting trafficking of meth, hashish, and prescription pills. According to official Saudi Press Agency:
- July 6:
Arrest of 37 individuals tied to trafficking amphetamine and meth (shabu) in Riyadh and Hail. It included 28 Saudis, 2 Ethiopians, 5 Syrians, and 2 Yemenis
- July 28:
Arrest of an Ethiopian resident and a Saudi national in Jazan Region. Seized: 72,715 prescription pills and 70 kg of hashish
- June 2025:
Two Ethiopians caught smuggling hashish, amphetamines, and medically regulated pills
Rhetoric And Reality
In the past, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince had stated that the kingdom will limit the use of the death penalty. On March 3, 2022, in an interview with the Atlantic, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said, "We got rid of all of it [the use of the death penalty], except for one category, and this one is written in the Quran, and we cannot do anything about it, even if we wished to do something, because it is clear teaching in the Quran."
Yet the continued surge in tazir-based executions, particularly for drug crimes, contradicts this public stance.
Despite international law prohibiting the death penalty for drug-related offences, and repeated UN concerns about due process, Saudi Arabia remained one of just four countries still executing people for such crimes in 2024.
