The sharp rise in executions is linked to Riyadh’s intensified “war on drugs” launched in recent years, with many of those arrested earlier now facing execution following lengthy legal proceedings and convictions
Saudi Arabia carried out 356 executions in 2025, marking the highest number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year.
According to AFP, citing analysts, the sharp rise in executions is linked to Riyadh’s intensified “war on drugs” launched in recent years, with many of those arrested earlier now facing execution following lengthy legal proceedings and convictions.
Government data cited by AFP showed that 243 of the executions in 2025 were related to drug offences.
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The 2025 total marks the second consecutive year in which Saudi Arabia has set a new execution record, after authorities carried out 338 executions in 2024.
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Duaa Dhainy, a researcher at the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, told AFP the record-breaking numbers were “proof that promises regarding human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia have no value”.
She added that the executions served as a message of “intimidation and fear for everyone”, including “migrant workers, minors and political opponents”.
The Berlin-based rights organisation said Saudi Arabia executed 356 people in 2025, noting that it was the first time in a single calendar year that more foreigners were put to death than Saudi nationals.
The kingdom resumed executions for drug-related offences at the end of 2022, after a roughly three-year suspension of the death penalty in narcotics cases.
Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, is also among the biggest markets for captagon, an illicit stimulant that the United Nations says was Syria’s largest export under former president Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December 2024.
Since launching its war on drugs, authorities have expanded police checkpoints on highways and at border crossings, seizing millions of pills and arresting dozens of suspected traffickers. Foreign nationals have so far borne the brunt of the campaign.
The Gulf kingdom has faced sustained international criticism over its use of capital punishment, which rights groups describe as excessive and at odds with efforts to project a more modern image.
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Activists say Riyadh’s continued use of the death penalty undermines the vision of a more open and tolerant socie