Saudi Arabia ‘sets new death penalty record in a year’

Saudi Arabia has broken its own record for executions carried out in one year, with 340 people killed this year, according to a tally by AFP. 

The new figure comes after Saudi authorities said three people were put to death on Monday. 

The interior ministry said three individuals were executed in Mecca after being convicted of murder. 

The tally is two more than the 338 people AFP recorded as having been executed in 2024, which was also a record at the time. 

The AFP tally for 2024 is slightly lower than the figure monitored by human rights groups Alqst, Amnesty and Reprieve, which have the number at 345. 

"The fact that Saudi authorities are poised to surpass last year’s record-high execution toll underscores a grim disregard for the right to life and repeated calls from UN experts and civil society," Nadyeen Abdulaziz, of UK-based group Alqst, told Middle East Eye. 

"Executions have been carried out after deeply flawed trials, involving confessions extracted under torture, and have even included individuals who were minors at the time of the alleged offences."

Of the executions this year, a majority (232) were for drug-related cases. Several others have been executed over terrorism charges, some of which were vague under Saudi Arabia’s broad definition of the term.

Many of these impositions of the death penalty may be in violation of international law, which only allows for use of the death penalty in relation to the “most serious crimes” involving intentional killings.

At the end of 2022, the kingdom resumed the use of the death penalty in drugs-related cases, after suspending them for about three years. 

A large number of those being executed since the resumption are foreign nationals. 

'Grim disregard' for life

In recent months, Saudi Arabia has executed two men who were minors at the time of the crimes they had allegedly committed, in violation of international law. 

Imposing the death penalty on individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime is prohibited under international human rights law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Saudi Arabia is a signatory of.

In 2020, amid global scrutiny, Saudi authorities vowed to end judges’ discretion to impose the death penalty on child convicts.

The kingdom’s human rights commission said a royal order had been issued to stop the death penalty for juvenile convicts. 

However, several executions of people who committed crimes as minors have occurred since that statement.

Alqst has identified five more child offenders at imminent risk of execution. 

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia had the third-highest number of executions globally in 2022, 2023 and 2024, behind China and Iran.