Saudi Arabia has executed more than 100 foreigners this year, according to an AFP tally, indicating a sharp increase that a rights group said was unprecedented.The latest execution, on Saturday in the southwestern region of Najran, was of a Yemeni national convicted of smuggling drugs into the Gulf kingdom, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
That brought to 101 the number of foreigners executed so far in 2024, according to the tally, which is compiled from state media reports. This is almost triple the figures for 2023 and 2022, when Saudi authorities put to death 34 foreigners each year, according to AFP tallies. The Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) said this year’s executions had already broken a record. “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, the group’s legal director.
Saudi Arabia has faced persistent criticism over its use of the death penalty, which human rights groups have condemned as excessive and out of step with efforts to soften its forbidding image and welcome international tourists and investors. The oil-rich kingdom executed the third-highest number of prisoners in the world after China and Iran in 2023, according to Amnesty International.
In September, AFP reported that Saudi Arabia had carried out its highest number of executions in more than three decades, surpassing its previous highs of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995. Executions have continued rapidly since then, totaling 274 for the year as of Sunday, according to AFP’s tally. The number includes both nationals and foreigners.
