Saudi Arabia - April 2025

Executions in Saudi Arabia have been reported to have risen sharply, with a record of 345 people executed in 2024, the highest number in over thirty years. An Amnesty International report published in April notes that many of these cases (35 per cent) involved drug related offences, for which capital punishment is prohibited under international law, and that foreign nationals made up almost three-quarters of such cases. In 2022, Saudi authorities resumed applying the death penalty for drug-related crimes after a 21-month moratorium.

Sources: Amnesty International (1), Amnesty International (2), European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, L’Orient Today