This week, on Thursday to be precise, Saudi Arabia put to death two people convicted of drug-related offenses and according to an AFP tally, this makes the total of executees this year to be 106. Of the executed, one was identified as a Saudi citizen apprehended with amphetamines, while the other, was a Pakistani, arrested with heroin in the Makkah region.
Hood commencements for drug offenses were last conducted in the last quarter of 2022 following a break of approximately three years. Unofficial statistics of the AFP reveal that until now this year 7 of 106 executions have been caused by drug-related crime.
Saudi Arabia executed at least 170 people in the reported year although 33 of them were executed for terrorism-related crimes. Before the end of the same period the preceding year the kingdom had at least conducted 74 executions.
The European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights based in Berlin deplored the record of beheading saying that Saudi Arabia has been executing one person almost every two days this year. Speaking to the media, the organization noted that one hundred executions in 196 days clearly indicate that the Saudi government is eager to use the death penalty extensively despite the international protocols and the official declarations the country has signed and joined.
The individuals beheaded this year are 78 KSA nationals, 8 Yemenis, 5 Ethiopians, 7 Pakistanis, 3 Syrians, one Sri Lankan, one Nigerian, one Jordanian, one Indian, and one Sudanese. Out of them, two were women.
In its global report on the death penalty unveiled in 2024, AI ranked the kingdom third after China and Iran in the number of executions conducted in 2023. The kingdom which beheads its citizens drew the ire of publicity in March 2022 when it conducted 81 executions on the same day.