180 Executions In 6 Months. What’s Driving Saudi Arabia’s Killing Spree In 2025

August 10, 2025

180 Executions In 6 Months. What’s Driving Saudi Arabia’s Killing Spree In 2025 – Read full story below.

Contempt Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ‘s past times promise to curtail the decease punishment to knowing killing , Saudi Arabia is one time once again transport out execution at a high rate , many of them for non-lethal drug offense . Late , 8 men in Saudi Arabia be execute in a bingle day . Out of these , 4 Somalis and 3 Ethiopians be execute “ for smuggling hasheesh into the land . ”

Foreign national look to be disproportionately affect . Nether the tazir , an Islamic legal rule that give Book of Judges broad discretion in sentence , Saudi court go on to manus down feather decease sentence at an dismay rate .

The regenerate moving ridge of execution has raise concern among homo right group .

Harmonize to a new Amnesty International study print in July and information from the functionary Saudi Press Agency , the land has execute 1,816 people betwixt January 2014 and June 2025 . About , one in 3 be execute for drug-related offense , which are offense that may not be punish by decease nether international homo right law and standard .

Tazir crime rich person no repair punishment in shariah , nor do they rich person clear definition nether other Torah in the state . Hence , Book of Judges rich person discretion to find sentence for offense that rich person no repair punishment , include the decease punishment , without beingness boundary by judicial case in point .

Contempt populace statement to the reverse , Book of Judges in Saudi Arabia go on to use tazir to enforce decease sentence , evening in non-lethal case . This base in direct contradiction to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ‘s 2022 claim that execution would be express to offense explicitly mandate in the Quran .

Foreign worker from low-income background human face the sterling hazard of executing , who are frequently with unequal legal mental representation , no consular support , and linguistic communication barrier . The express instruction and disadvantage socio-economic background of the foreign national on decease row addition their hazard of development in their migration and brand it Thomas More hard for them to entree legal mental representation in Saudi Arabia , the Amnesty International in its study explain .

Several others stay at at hand hazard of executing . In June , UN expert urge Saudi Arabia to arrest the executing of 26 Egyptian national on decease row in Tabouk prison house for drug offense . Two men from this grouping be execute in May , without prior notice to their family .

Piece Saudi Arabia citation its “ war on drug ” to warrant the execution , the state continue to witnesser important drug traffic and large-scale seizure .

Harmonize to a study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime print in June , state of the Arabian Peninsula stay the primary election finish market for captagon . Nevertheless , a deficiency of functionary coverage of aggregate information from Saudi Arabia since 2022 has make it hard to carry out a comprehensive examination regional tendency analysis , because about two one-third ( 67 per cent ) of captagon tablet seize in the part betwixt 2012 and 2021 be report by that state .

Several large seizure report in late 2024 and early 2025 in neighbor state such as Iraq and Jordan , as well as Saudi Arabia , point to the continue use of establish traffic path .

In the past times decennary , captagon trade explode across the Middle East ( 2018-2022 ) , top out in 2021 . In the stopping point 10 old age in Saudi Arabia : –

In 2023 , the Crown Prince officially declare a war on drug . Since then , mass apprehension and execution rich person follow in rapid sequence .

Saudi arabian Arabia ramp up its anti-drug crackdown in June and July 2025 , with major apprehension and seizure report across multiple region . Tons be confine , include foreign national , in trading operations target traffic of methamphetamine , hasheesh , and prescription pill . Harmonize to functionary Saudi Press Agency :

Apprehension of 37 person tie to traffic pep pill and methamphetamine ( methamphetamine ) in Riyadh and Hail . It include 28 Saudis , 2 Ethiopians , 5 Syrians , and 2 Yemenis

Apprehension of an Ethiopian occupant and a Saudi subject in Jazan Region . Seize : 72,715 prescription pill and 70 kg of hasheesh

Two Ethiopians catch smuggling hasheesh , amphetamine , and medically regulate pill

In the past times , Saudi Arabia ‘s Crown Prince had state that the land volition bound the use of the decease punishment . On March 3 , 2022 , in an interview with the Atlantic , Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman state , “ We got rid of all of it [ the use of the decease punishment ] , demur for one class , and this one is write in the Quran , and we can not do anything astir it , evening if we wish to do something , because it is clear instruction in the Quran . ”

Yet the continue rush in tazir-based execution , peculiarly for drug crime , contradict this populace stance .

Contempt international law forbid the decease punishment for drug-related offense , and repeat UN concern astir due procedure , Saudi Arabia stay one of just 4 state still execution people for such crime in 2024 .