Saudi Arabia executed more than 100 foreign nationals this year, AFP reported. The latest execution was of a Yemeni national convicted of smuggling drugs into the Middle East kingdom.
With this, a total of 101 foreigners have been put to death by Saudi Arabia in 2024. It is three times the figures for 2023 and 2022 when the authorities had executed 34 foreign nationals each year, the AFP report added.
“This is the largest number of executions of foreigners in one year. Saudi Arabia has never executed 100 foreigners in a year,” said Taha al-Hajji, Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) legal director, told AFP.
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Human rights groups have criticised Saudi Arabia over its use of the death penalty, calling it “excessive” and “out of step” with efforts to soften its forbidding image and welcome international tourists and investors.
According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia executed the third-highest number of prisoners across the world after China and Iran in 2023.
In September this year, the Gulf country carried out its highest number of executions in more than three decades, surpassing its previous highs of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995.
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274 executions in Saudi Arabia in 2024 so far
Executions have increased since then and totalled 274 for the year as of Sunday, AFP reported.
According to the report, the foreigners executed this year include 21 from Pakistan, 20 from Yemen, 14 from Syria, 10 from Nigeria, nine from Egypt, eight from Jordan and seven from Ethiopia. There were also three each from Sudan, India and Afghanistan, and one each from Sri Lanka, Eritrea and the Philippines.
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Saudi Arabia in 2022 ended a three-year moratorium on the execution of drug offenders, and executions for drug-related crimes have boosted this year’s numbers.
There have been 92 such executions so far this year, 69 of them of foreigners.
Diplomats and activists say that foreign defendants usually face a higher barrier to fair trials, including the right to access court documents.
Foreigners “are the most vulnerable group”, said Hajji of the ESOHR.
Not only are they often “victims of major drug dealers” but also “subjected to a series of violations from the moment of their arrest until their execution,” he said.
