Saudi Arabia’s horrific use of the death penalty continues apace this year, with at least 111 individuals executed so far in 2025, amid a particular surge in executions for drug-related offences. This grim milestone totally confutes any claim by the authorities to be limiting use of the death penalty as previously pledged, and intensifies fears for those at risk of execution, including foreign nationals and child defendants.
111 named individuals have been reported by the official Saudi Press Agency as having been executed in 2025 so far (as of 12 May). This is approximately 70% more than at the same stage in 2024, the year that saw the highest number of executions in Saudi history: 345. Apart from a pause between 21 February and 6 April, coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan, executions have been taking place this year at a rate of well over one a day.
Of those 111 individuals, 68 were executed for drug-related crimes, all on the basis of ta’zir (judicial discretion), of whom 41 were foreign nationals from 10 Asian and African countries. 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”. A short-lived Saudi moratorium on executions for drug offences lasted from January 2021 until November 2022 but was never consolidated in an official change of policy.
This regressive trend raises grave concerns for the lives of hundreds of prisoners sentenced to death for drug-related offences, including dozens of Egyptian nationals detained in Tabuk Prison. ALQST and partner organisations recently submitted the cases of three such Egyptian nationals at imminent risk of execution – Mohamed Kamel, Farhat Abu al-Saud and Essam Shazly – to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. They have faced serious violations throughout their detention and trial, including severe acts of torture and ill-treatment.
Meanwhile, 12 of the individuals known to have been executed in 2025 were sentenced to death for offences allegedly related to “terrorism”, which according to the vague and broad definition in Saudi law can include a wide range of non-lethal acts, as well as charges such as “betraying one’s country”.
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 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 the years since have seen record-breaking numbers of people known to have been executed; the real figures may be even higher.
The Saudi authorities are also failing to deliver on what have proved to be false promises in relation to use of the death penalty for juveniles. Currently, at least nine young men are at risk of execution for offences committed while they were below the age of 18. This is in violation of international human rights law, and directly contradicts official claims to have ended the practice. UN experts have recently called for the immediate release of five of the child defendants at imminent risk of execution: Abdullah al-Derazi, Jalal al-Labbad, Youssef al-Manasef, Jawad Qureiris and Hassan al-Faraj.
In light of the alarming scale on which death sentences are carried out in Saudi Arabia, we urge the authorities there to establish an immediate moratorium on executions with a view to full abolition of the death penalty for all crimes. Pending this, Saudi Arabia must immediately remove from its statute book any death penalty provisions that are in breach of international human rights law, including for crimes that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” as stipulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and for its use against people who were below the age of 18 at the time of the crime.
