Saudi Arabia has executed more than 100 foreigners this year, according to an AFP tally, marking a sharp increase that a rights group described as unprecedented.
The latest execution, carried out on Saturday in the southwestern region of Najran, was of a Yemeni national convicted of drug smuggling into the Gulf kingdom, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
The number of foreigners killed so far in 2024 has risen to 101, according to data compiled from state media reports.
This is almost triple the figures for 2023 and 2022, when Saudi authorities executed 34 foreigners each year, according to AFP data.
The Berlin-based European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) said this year’s executions had already broken a record.
“This is the highest number of executions of foreigners in a year. Saudi Arabia has never executed 100 foreigners in a year,” said Taha al-Haji, the group’s legal director.
Saudi Arabia has faced continued criticism over its use of the death penalty, which human rights groups have denounced as an excessive and unfair step alongside efforts to soften its restrictive image and welcome international tourists and investors.
The oil-rich state executed the third-most prisoners in the world in 2023, behind China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
In September, AFP reported that Saudi Arabia had carried out the highest number of executions in more than three decades, surpassing its previous high of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995.
Since then, executions have continued at a rapid pace, with a total of 274 executions this year as of Sunday, according to AFP calculations.
‘Performance Crisis’
The foreigners hanged this year include 21 from Pakistan, 20 from Yemen, 14 from Syria, 10 from Nigeria, nine from Egypt, eight from Jordan and seven from Ethiopia.
These included three each from Sudan, India and Afghanistan and one each from Sri Lanka, Eritrea and the Philippines.
Saudi Arabia ended a three-year moratorium on executions of drug offenders in 2022, and executions for drug-related crimes have increased the number this year.
According to an AFP tally, 92 people have been hanged so far this year, 69 of them foreigners.
Diplomats and activists say foreign defendants generally face high barriers to a fair trial, including the right to access court documents.
Foreigners “are the most vulnerable group,” said ESOHR’s Haji.
Not only are they often “victims of major drug dealers”, he said, but they are also “subject to a range of violations from the moment of their arrest until their execution”.
Saudi Arabia is notorious for beheading those convicted of major crimes, although official statements do not mention the method of execution.
The large number of executions undermines statements by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who told The Atlantic in 2022 that the kingdom carried out executions with the exception of cases of murder or when a person threatened the lives of multiple people. If you pose a threat to others, the death penalty has been abolished. ,
Zeid Bassouni, who leads anti-death penalty advocacy in the Middle East for the NGO Reprieve, said frequent drug arrests are “perpetuating the cycle of violence”.
He said the total number of executions this year was on track to exceed 300.
“This is an unprecedented execution crisis in Saudi Arabia,” Basyouni said.
“Families of foreign nationals on death row are fearful that their loved ones will be next.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
