SAUDI ARABIA: 100 PEOPLE EXECUTED IN 2025 SO FAR

May 4, 2025:

Saudi Arabia executed two people convicted of terrorism related charges, the interior ministry said on April 3, 2025, bringing the total number of executions carried out this year to at least 100, according to an AFP tally.
The ministry’s announcement posted on social media said the two Saudi nationals had been executed for their involvement in ‘terrorism’, including joining a terrorist organisation and attending training camps abroad, where they learned to produce explosives.
‘After they were referred to the competent court, a ruling was issued confirming the charges against them and ordering their execution as a punishment,’ read the statement.
According to an AFP tally, of the 100 people executed this year, 59 were individuals convicted of drug-related crimes, 43 of whom were foreign nationals.
The executions were slammed by advocacy groups.
‘As Saudi Arabia positions itself as a positive diplomatic player, international partners have shown they are willing to turn a blind eye to its gross human rights violations,’ Jeed Basyouni from the human rights group Reprieve said in a statement.
‘The consequences? 100 executions and counting since January, more than half of them for non-lethal drug related offences following 345 executions last year,’ Basyouni added.
Saudi authorities resumed executions for drug-related offences at the end of 2022 after a hiatus of nearly three years.
According to an earlier AFP tally, at least 338 people were executed last year—nearly twice the 2023 figure of 170, and far higher than the previous known record of 196 in 2022.
Last month, rights group Amnesty International criticised what it called an ‘alarming surge’ in the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia following a string of executions linked to ‘drug-related crimes’.
The Saudi authorities say the death penalty is necessary to maintain public order and is only used after all avenues for appeal have been exhausted.