Since the start of 2024, Saudi Arabia has executed over 100 foreigners, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). A human rights organization said that the number, which is based on official announcements, sets a new record. A Yemeni national was put to death on Saturday after being convicted of narcotics smuggling, according to the Saudi news agency. It was in Najran where Moussa Mohammed Abdullah Saleh was executed. Since January, this was the 101st execution of foreigners in the monarchy.
“This is the most executions of foreigners in a single year,”
stated the legal head of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR). With the addition of Taha Al-Hajji, the yearly total of foreigners killed in Saudi Arabia increased to 34 in 2022 and 2023.
The legal system and due process concerns
Saudi Arabia is frequently criticized for using the death sentence excessively. Human rights organizations contend that these killings undercut Saudi Arabia’s attempts to improve its reputation through social and economic changes as part of the “Vision 2030” program, which is led by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. According to Amnesty International, the monarchy came in third place among nations with the most executions worldwide in 2022 and 2023, behind China and Iran. As of September, Saudi Arabia had executed 198 people since the start of 2024, the most in a single year in more than 30 years, according to AFP. Since January, 274 people have been put to death in the kingdom as of yesterday. Bin Salman told The Atlantic magazine in 2022 that Riyadh had abolished the death penalty except in situations of murder or when someone’s life was in danger, which runs counter to the notable rise in executions. According to Jid Basyouni, head of the human rights organization Reprieve’s Middle East and North Africa defense branch, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is experiencing “an unprecedented execution crisis.” According to the anti-death penalty NGO, there will be more than 300 executions overall in 2024.
International reactions to the executions
Twenty-one Pakistanis, twenty Yemenis, fourteen Syrians, ten Nigerians, nine Egyptians, eight Jordanians, and seven Ethiopians were among the foreigners who have been put to death since the start of 2024. Additionally executed were Sudanese, Indians, Afghans, Sri Lankans, Eritreans, and Filipinos. 69 of these were put to death on suspicion of drug trafficking. Following a three-year moratorium of the death sentence, Saudi Arabia resumed the execution of those found guilty of drug offenses at the end of 2022, executing 19 people in a single month. Al-Hajji pointed out that big drug dealers frequently take advantage of outsiders. He went on to say that from the moment of their detention until the day of their execution, they are supposedly subjected to many human rights breaches. The number of executions for drug-related offenses has increased this year since Saudi Arabia lifted a three-year ban on the practice in 2022. This year, there have been 92 such executions, 69 of which involved foreigners. Foreign defendants typically face greater obstacles to fair trials, including the opportunity to view court papers, according to diplomats and activists. According to Hajji of the ESOHR, foreigners “are the most vulnerable group.”
Human rights organizations’ response
They are
“subject to a series of violations from the moment of their arrest until their execution,”
he added, in addition to frequently being “victims of major drug dealers.” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, told The Atlantic in 2022 that the country had abolished the death penalty except in cases of murder or where a person constituted a threat to many lives. However, the consistently high number of executions contradicts his claims. The kingdom’s use of the death sentence has come under growing criticism; according to international organizations like Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia is the world’s third-largest executioner of prisoners, after China and Iran. The high number of executions this year runs counter to statements made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, who stated in a 2022 interview with The Atlantic that the death sentence had been abolished in the kingdom, except for murder cases and situations involving those who pose a threat to many lives.
Saudi Arabia’s justifications for the executions
Royal decrees in the same year created the Public Prosecution Office and the Presidency of State Security, two new organizations used to repress protestors. When Saudi Arabia lifted its three-year ban on the execution of drug offenders in 2022, the number of executions for drug-related offenses increased to 92 this year. The kingdom is still among the most common executioners in the globe.