'Startling surge' in Saudi executions in recent years, Amnesty says

Amnesty International has found a "startling surge" in executions in Saudi Arabia, including many foreign nationals who were convicted in drug-related offences, according to a new report released on Monday.

Between January 2014 and June 2025, Saudi Arabia executed 1,816 people. Nearly one in three were executed for drug-related offences, and 75% of those were foreign nationals, the rights group said.

In June 2025 alone, the Gulf monarchy has executed 46 people, including 37 for drug-related offences – an average of more than one drug-related execution per day, Amnesty said. Thirty-four were foreign nationals.

"We are witnessing a truly horrifying trend, with foreign nationals being put to death at a startling rate for crimes that should never carry the death penalty. This report exposes the dark and deadly reality behind the progressive image that the authorities attempt to project globally," said Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Nationalities particularly affected over the last decade include 155 Pakistanis, 66 Syrians, 50 Jordanians, alongside others, the group said, adding that dozens more foreign nationals remain at imminent risk of execution.

Amnesty said that 2024 saw the highest number of executions it has recorded in the kingdom in more than three decades, which stood at 345 executions. In the same year, Saudi Arabia was one of only four countries in the world with reported executions for drug-related offences.

The kingdom has been repeatedly criticized as rights groups say it is one of the countries with the highest number of executions worldwide, despite earlier promises that Riyadh was limiting the death penalty in some cases.

An unofficial moratorium on death penalties for drug-related offences ended in November 2022, after almost two years.

Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman championed social and economic reforms aimed at helping to open the conservative kingdom for investors and tourists as it hopes to diversify its oil-reliant economy as part of the crown prince's ambitious Vision 2030 plan.

Saudi Arabia, which is due to host the 2034 football World Cup, has invested large sums in entertainment and sports. Rights groups have dismissed it as sports-washing.