Saudi Arabia's Execution Rates Skyrocket: A Human Rights Crisis

Mon Dec 22 2025 09:27:19 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Saudi Arabia has set a new record for executions this year, surpassing the previous year’s total. Rights groups are speaking out against the alarming trend that seems to ignore international human rights standards.

In a disturbing trend, Saudi Arabia has reported a record 347 executions in 2025, marking the deadliest year since monitoring began. With many of those executed for non-lethal drug offenses, the rise in executions raises serious human rights concerns. Activists call the country's practice a 'mockery of the human rights system', especially as the majority of those executed are foreign nationals targeted in a 'war on drugs'.

Saudi Arabia has surpassed its record for the number of executions carried out annually for a second year in a row.

At least 347 people have now been put to death this year, up from a total of 345 in 2024, according to the UK-based campaign group Reprieve, which tracks executions in Saudi Arabia and has clients on death row.

The latest prisoners to be executed were two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug-related offences.

Others put to death this year include a journalist and two young men who were children at the time of their alleged protest-related crimes. Five were women.

But, according to Reprieve, most - around two thirds - were convicted of non-lethal drug-related offences, which the UN says is 'incompatible with international norms and standards'.

More than half of them were foreign nationals who appear to have been put to death as part of a 'war on drugs' in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia is operating with complete impunity now,” said Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve's head of death penalty for the Middle East and North Africa. 'It's almost making a mockery of the human rights system.'

She described torture and forced confessions as 'endemic' within the Saudi criminal justice system.

Ms Basyouni called it a 'brutal and arbitrary crackdown' in which innocent people and those on the margins of society have been caught up.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman - who became crown prince in 2017 - has changed the country profoundly over the past few years, loosening social restrictions while simultaneously silencing criticism. However, the kingdom's human rights record remains 'abysmal', with the high level of executions being a major concern.

The UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions has called for an immediate moratorium on executions in Saudi Arabia.