Saudi Arabia’s escalating use of the death penalty has reached horrifying levels in 2024, with at least 309 individuals executed as of 8 December, the highest known figure in Saudi history. This grim milestone illustrates the Saudi authorities’ callous disregard for the right to life, and contradicts their own pledges to limit use of the death penalty.
Of the 309 individuals executed so far in 2024, according to data from the official Saudi Press Agency, 189 (61%) were Saudi nationals. The 120 foreign nationals executed were from 14 Asian and African countries.
106 individuals have been executed for drug-related crimes, 81 of whom were foreign nationals. This marks a sharp rise from 2023, which saw just two drug-related executions, and confirms the reversal of a short-lived moratorium on executions for such offences that lasted from January 2021 until November 2022 but was never consolidated in an official change of policy. This regressive trend raises serious concerns for the lives of hundreds of prisoners sentenced to death for drug-related offences. Such executions are in clear violation of international human rights law, which prohibits use of the death penalty for crimes that do not meet the threshold of the “most serious”.
46 individuals were executed for “terrorism-related” offences, which can include a wide range of non-lethal acts such as taking part in protests. The implausible claim made by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that Abdulmajeed Al Nimr, a Shi’a man executed on 17 August, had joined a terrorist cell affiliated to Al-Qaeda – a charge that did not appear anywhere in the court documents relating to his trial and sentencing – represents a flagrant example of the Saudi authorities’ determination to brand legitimate dissent and protest a form of terrorism.
Saudi Arabia has for years been among the countries carrying out the highest number of executions in the world. Despite a pledge in 2018 from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to reduce use of the death penalty, the rate of executions has continued to soar, apart from a relative lull during the coronavirus pandemic. As recently as March 2022, Mohammed bin Salman repeated the commitment to limit use of the death penalty, yet that year saw a record-breaking number of people executed: 196 individuals. In 2023, the authorities carried out at least 172 executions, and the figure for the first eleven months of 2024 is by some distance the highest ever recorded in Saudi history. In the absence of transparency, and with executions sometimes carried out in secret, the real figures may be even higher.
Disturbingly, Saudi Arabia continues to impose death sentences on individuals for crimes committed as minors, in direct violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a party. At least nine young people are currently at risk of execution for offences committed under the age of 18, sometimes as young as 12. The majority were convicted by the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) under the draconian Counter-Terrorism Law for acts protected by the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including participating in protests and attending funerals. The young men’s sentences all followed grossly unfair trials that failed to meet basic standards of due process, including by denying them legal counsel and access to criminal files, and admitting coerced confessions as evidence in court.
In Saudi Arabia the death penalty is also weaponised as part of the authorities’ broader campaign of repression, including as a tool to silence dissent and instil fear. At least five members of the Huwaitat tribe have been sentenced to death for peacefully resisting the forced displacement of their tribe to make way for the state-backed Neom megacity project. In another example of the authorities’ harsh repression of free expression, in July 2023 the SCC, the court that handles terrorism cases, sentenced retired teacher Mohammed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi to death solely for peaceful tweets. The court later commuted his sentence to a 30-year prison term. Meanwhile, Islamic scholars Salman al-Odah and Hassan Farhan al-Maliki, for whom the Public Prosecutor is seeking the death penalty on a range of vaguely formulated charges, continue to have their trials drag on for unknown reasons. Both have been arbitrarily detained since September 2017.
ALQST’s Head of Monitoring and Advocacy Lina Alhathloul comments: “This unprecedented surge in executions is a clear and alarming reminder that despite the Saudi leadership's rhetoric of reform, it is deepening its repression. Failure to challenge these abuses will only embolden the Saudi authorities and lead to more killing. Governments, businesses and other stakeholders engaging with Saudi Arabia must hold the authorities responsible for their actions.”
ALQST calls on the Saudi authorities to take immediate steps to halt all executions and establish a firm moratorium on the death penalty, with the aim of its eventual abolition. We also urge Saudi Arabia to ensure that its judicial system upholds international human rights standards, including the prohibitions on executing minors and individuals sentenced for non-violent crimes.
