Saudi Arabia executes a person every two days this year: Report

According to the rights group, which monitors executions in the kingdom, the rate amounts to an execution nearly every two days, representing a 42 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023, which recorded 172 executions.

ESOHR said that the surge indicates an “insistence on using the death penalty extensively, in violation of international laws and its official commitments”.

Despite the rise in execution numbers, the group noted that they had identified only three individuals facing imminent execution, indicating that many executions are taking place in secret.

According to Reprieve, which documents death penalty cases in the kingdom, in many cases the families of the victims are not aware they were on death row.

ESOHR noted that in 19 of the cases they monitored, the type of sentence and the court that issued it are often concealed in official reporting.

They added that this lack of transparency is “a new form of manipulation by Saudi Arabia to evade its commitments and continue using the death penalty as a tool”.

In 2023, a joint report by ESOHR and Reprieve revealed that Riyadh’s execution rate has almost doubled since King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2015. Between 2015 and 2022, executions surged by 82 percent.

In February this year, seven Saudi men were killed in a mass execution, the highest number put to death in one day since 81 were killed in March 2022.

According to the report, Saudi authorities routinely used the death penalty to quash political dissidents, in contravention of international law which stipulates it should only be used for the most serious crimes.

According to Reprieve, foreign nationals, including female domestic workers and drug offenders, are “disproportionately” targeted.

Despite the crown prince’s pledge in a 2018 interview that he would minimise executions, the country remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners.