This is the largest number of executions of foreigners in one year. it is almost three times compared to 2023 and 2022,
Saudi Arabia has already executed more than 100 foreigners this year, bringing the total number of executions to 274. The sharp increase in the execution of the death penalty was described by a human rights group as unprecedented. TASR writes according to the AFP agency.
So far, the last execution of a foreigner took place on Saturday in the Najran region in the southwest of the country. According to the official Saudi Press Agency, a Yemeni national convicted of drug smuggling was executed. According to state media reports, 101 foreigners were already executed in 2024. This is almost three times more than in 2023 and 2022, when Saudi authorities killed 34 foreigners each year.
“This is the largest number of executions of foreigners in one year. So far, Saudi Arabia has never executed 100 foreigners in a year,” said ESOHR legal director Taha al-Hajji. The European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) is based in Berlin.
Saudi Arabia has faced constant criticism over its use of the death penalty, complicating efforts to soften the monarchy’s repulsive image abroad and welcome more foreign tourists and investors. In 2023, Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia ended a three-year moratorium on the execution of drug offenders. This year, by Sunday, at least 274 executions (both domestic and foreign) have been carried out in the monarchy, with which the judicial authorities have surpassed the negative records of 196 executed in 2022 and 192 in 1995.
Among the foreigners executed this year were 21 from Pakistan, 20 from Yemen, 14 from Syria, 10 from Nigeria, nine from Egypt, eight from Jordan, seven from Ethiopia, three from Sudan, India and Afghanistan, and one each from Sri Lanka, Eritrea and Philippines.
