Saudi Arabia has broken its annual execution record for the second year in a row.Reprieve, a UK-based human rights group representing several death row inmates in Saudi Arabia, reported in its annual review that at least 347 people were executed in the kingdom in 2025. This exceeds the previous record of 345 executions in 2024.
kabul 24: The report describes 2025 as the “bloodiest year on record” for executions since monitoring began.
The most recent executions involved two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug-related offenses.Among those executed this year were two journalists, two men who were minors at the time of their alleged offenses, and five women.
According to Reprieve, around two-thirds of the executions were for non-lethal drug offenses—a practice the United Nations deems incompatible with recognized international norms.
More than half of those executed were foreign nationals, apparently targeted under Saudi Arabia’s “war on drugs.”Saudi authorities did not respond to BBC requests for comment on the surge in executions.
Among Saudi citizens executed this year were Abdullah al-Darazi and Jalal al-Labad, both minors at the time of their arrest.They had been detained in 2011 and 2012 for protesting the government’s treatment of the Shia minority and attending funerals of individuals killed by security forces.
According to Amnesty International, they were convicted of “terrorist” acts in grossly unfair trials based on confessions extracted under torture.
UN human rights experts had called for their release.The UN also condemned the June execution of journalist Turki al-Jasser. Arrested in 2018, he was convicted of terrorism and treason over reports he was accused of writing.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay stated: “The death penalty for journalists is a horrific attack on freedom of expression and press freedom.”Reporters Without Borders noted that he was the first journalist executed in Saudi Arabia since Mohammed bin Salman came to power—though Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018.
UN experts had raised concerns last December about 32 Egyptians and one Jordanian sentenced to death without legal representation.
Most have since been executed.One relative of an executed individual said: “They take them like goats to slaughter.”Saudi authorities did not respond to BBC inquiries about these allegations.
However, in a January 2025 letter responding to UN concerns, they stated that Saudi Arabia “protects and upholds” human rights, prohibits and criminalizes torture, and applies the death penalty “only for the most serious crimes and in very limited cases,” after full judicial proceedings at all levels.
