Saudi Arabia surpasses 300 executions in 2024
The Saudi Arabian flag is seen behind barbed wire as it flies on the roof at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Türkiye on October 14, 2018. (AFP Photo)
Saudi Arabia has put over 300 people to death in 2024, according to an AFP tally, after four executions announced on Tuesday brought the kingdom’s total to a level far outstripping the highest known annual figures.
The death penalty was carried out against three people convicted of drug smuggling and another for murder, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing the interior ministry.
It brings the total number of executions for the year to 303, according to the tally based on state media reports.
The Gulf monarchy had enacted the death penalty 200 times by the end of September, according to the same tally of official data, indicating a rapid rate of executions in recent weeks.
Third highest number of executed prisoners in the world in 2023
Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
Previously the record number of executions in a single year in the country had stood at 196 in 2022, said the London-based human rights group, which began recording the annual figures in 1990.
Taha al-Hajji, legal director of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), condemned the “rocket speed” of executions in 2024, calling it “incomprehensible and inexplicable.”
Human rights activists had previously warned Saudi Arabia could exceed 300 executions this year, with one execution being recorded almost every day.
