Saudi Arabia has again set a grim record for executions, carrying out more death sentences this year than ever before. According to UK-based human rights organization Reprieve, which monitors executions in the kingdom, at least 347 people have been executed in 2025, surpassing the 345 recorded in 2024. The group described this as the “bloodiest year of executions in the kingdom since monitoring began.”
Among the latest executed were two Pakistani nationals convicted on drug-related charges. Other executions this year have included a journalist, two young men who were minors at the time of their alleged protest-related offenses, and five women.
Reprieve reports that roughly two-thirds of those executed were convicted for non-lethal drug offenses—a practice the UN considers incompatible with international human rights standards. More than half of the individuals put to death were foreign nationals, many seemingly targeted as part of Saudi Arabia’s intensified anti-drug campaign.
The Saudi government has not responded to inquiries regarding the surge in executions. Jeed Basyouni, head of Reprieve’s death penalty program for the Middle East and North Africa, condemned the country’s actions, saying, “Saudi Arabia is operating with complete impunity. It’s almost a mockery of the human rights system.”
Basyouni further highlighted widespread use of torture and forced confessions within the Saudi criminal justice system, describing the ongoing crackdown as “brutal and arbitrary,” with innocent individuals and society’s most vulnerable being disproportionately affected.
