A new report released today by Amnesty International has attracted attention to the astonishing actions in Saudi Arabia’s executions in recent years, especially drug-related crimes, and highlights the significant impact these have on foreign nationals.
Official news agencies said that between January 2014 and June 2025, Saudi Arabia executed 1,816 people. Almost one-third of people are executed for drug-related crimes, a crime that may not be punished for death under international human rights law and standards. Of the 597 people executed for drug-related offences over a decade, foreign nationals account for nearly three-quarters (75%) of such executions.
In 2024, Saudi Arabia carried out a record 345 executions. So far this year, a total of 180 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia between January and June 2025.
In June 2025 alone, Saudi Arabia executed 46 people, including 37 people who committed drug-related crimes – an average of more than one drug-related execution per day. There are 34 foreign nationals from Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.
We have witnessed a truly fearful trend, with the shocking crimes of foreign nationals being sentenced to death for crimes.
Kristine Beckerle, Deputy Regional Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa
“After a serious unfair trial, Saudi Arabia’s ruthless and ruthless use of the death penalty not only demonstrates a creepy disregard for human life; its application for drug-related crimes is also a serious violation of international laws and standards,” said Kristine Beckerle, deputy regional director of the International Ansti International, on the Middle East and North Africa.
“We witness a truly fearful trend in which foreign nationals were executed for shocking crimes for crimes. This report reveals the dark and deadly reality of the progressive image that authorities are trying to project on a global scale.”
The 345 executions conducted in 2024 are the largest number of Amnesty International executions recorded in Saudi Arabia in thirty years. About 35% of these people (or 122) were executed for drug-related offences, the highest annual total since the 1990 amnesty began to be registered in Saudi Arabia. In 2024, Saudi Arabia is one of only four countries in the world, and drug-related criminals are reported to be in the death penalty.
In a major policy reversal, Saudi Arabia suspended its 33-month moratorium on drug-related executions announced in January 2021, and was suddenly lifted in November 2022. Saudi Arabia has executed 262 drug-related crimes since the beginning of drug-related crimes – nearly half of the drug totals are recorded, which involves a 10-year period of drug execution.
The report is based on a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the death penalty spanning a decade and conducts an in-depth review of foreign national cases sentenced to death.
In stark contrast to the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s title, the kingdom is limiting the death penalty ta’zir (Discree) offences, analysis reveals the pattern of judges, exercising discretion to increase the severity of punishment and impose a death sentence, even if it is not involved in intentional killing, rather than using it to limit the use of the death penalty. Amnesty International’s analysis shows that 122 ta’zir Executions for drug-related offences were conducted in 2024 alone, and 118 such executions were executed in the first six months of 2025.
The report highlights how foreign nationals can be executed at a startling speed for drug-related crimes. The ethnic groups particularly affected in the past decade include Pakistan (155 executives), Syrians (66), Jordanians (50), Yemen (39), Egyptians (33), Nigerians (32), Somalia (22) (22) (22) and Ethiopians (13) (13). Dozens of foreign nationals still have risks of execution.
Foreign nationals face the additional challenge of being fairly tried in Saudi Arabia, which is not its own country and has an inherent opaque criminal justice system.
A relative told Amnesty International: “We don’t know if they have court documents…we cannot get any legal documents because we have no one in the country supporting our case, such as legal representatives. There is also a language barrier. My brother left Ethiopia within a week and left Ethiopia while crossing the Yemeni border. He didn’t know anything about him facing the Saudi border.”
Amnesty International’s European Saudi Human Rights and Justice Program Pakistan Project, in collaboration with partner organizations, records 25 foreign national cases from Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Pakistan and Somalia, which have been convicted of drug-related offenses currently in a dead prisoner or have been executed in Saudi Arabia.
Based on in-depth interviews with 13 people, community members and consulate officials, and an examination of court documents, Amnesty International concluded that these foreign nationals had limited education and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds in the death team, which made them more difficult for the risk of exploitation in the migration.
The report details the right to systematically inadequately guarantee its right to a fair trial, including the lack of legal representation, insufficient consular support, and inability to obtain effective interpretation.
At least four cases involve people who reported torture or other ill-treatment during pretrial detention to extract “confessions.” For example, Hussein Abou al-Kheir, a 57-year-old eight-year-old father, withdrew his torture “confession” several times during the trial process, noting that he was beaten to the point where he could not hold a pen, but the judge used his self-prompt statement as evidence to prove him. This practice violates Saudi Arabia’s obligations under the Convention against Torture and other international safeguards to ensure the rights of those facing the death penalty.
The psychological loss of death row and family to both is described as Amnesty International. Many people don’t know the status of their appeal or when execution may occur. In some cases, they were notified only by the prison officials the day before. The family learned about the execution through other detainees or media reports. In all cases recorded by Amnesty International, Saudi authorities retained the bodies of the executed person, denying that families have the right to mourn and perform funerals according to their religious practices – a practice denounced by the United Nations body and is a form of adverse treatment.
“We were frustrated, especially without mourning bodies. No funeral ceremony… Back in Amman, my family sat quietly in their living room in their living room, screaming like madmen when they heard the news. It was an image that broke my heart.”
Use death penalty for Shiite minorities
In addition to drug crimes, Amnesty International’s analysis shows that crimes against “terrorism” related to Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority are shocking. Although Shiite communities account for an estimated 10-12% of the total population, between January 2014 and June 2025, about 42% of all “terrorism”-related executions (120 out of 286) (120). This reflects the political repression in the face of ongoing discrimination, where dissenting opinions differ from peace are often prosecuted as “terrorism.”
The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degraded punishment and should not be used under any circumstances.
Kristine Beckerle
Although recent legal reforms aim to limit the use of death penalty for children, people under the age of 18, seven young people, some young, at the time of alleged crime, are at risk of execution. Four of them have been recently reconsidered and sentenced to death again. According to international human rights law, it is absolutely prohibited to sentence young people under the age of 18, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a national political party.
“The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degraded punishment and should not be used under any circumstances. In addition to establishing a moratorium on executions immediately, the Saudi Arabian authorities must also amend national laws to remove the death penalty and all death penalty.”
“Saudi Arabia’s allies in the international community must put pressing pressure on the authorities to stop the execution frenzy and adhere to international human rights obligations.”
