Saudi Arabia has executed more than 100 foreigners since the start of 2024, according to an AFP count based on official announcements, a toll that constitutes a new record, according to a human rights group.
On Saturday, “Moussa Saleh, Yemeni national” was executed in Najran (south) for drug trafficking, the SPA agency said. His execution brings to 101 the number of foreigners executed in the country since January 2024, according to an AFP count.
“This is the highest number of executions of foreigners in a single year,” Taha al-Hajji, the Saudi head of a Berlin-based human rights organization (ESOHR), told AFP.
In 2023, as in 2022, the number of annual executions of foreigners rose to 34. Riyadh’s application of the death penalty has been criticized on numerous occasions by human rights groups who consider excessive and out of step with the efforts made by Saudi Arabia to present a modern and reformist image internationally.
Saudi Arabia is the country that executed the most prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
In September, the AFP had recorded 198 executions since the start of 2024, the highest figure in more than three decades, surpassing previous records of 196 executions in 2022 and 192 in 1995.
Executions have continued at a rapid pace since then, reaching a total of 274 for the year on Sunday, according to the AFP tally.
This assessment contradicts the declarations of the crown prince and de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, who assured the American magazine The Atlantic, in 2022, that his kingdom had eliminated the death penalty, except for criminals or individuals putting lives at risk.
Jeed Basyouni, Middle East director of Reprieve, an NGO which campaigns against the death penalty, points to an “unprecedented execution crisis in Saudi Arabia”, estimating that the total number of executions is expected to exceed 300 this year.
Among the foreigners executed since the start of the year are 21 Pakistanis, 20 Yemenis, 14 Syrians, 10 Nigerians, nine Egyptians, eight Jordanians and seven Ethiopians. Sudanese, Indians, Afghans, a Sri Lankan, an Eritrean and a Filipino were also executed. Of these, 69 were executed for drug trafficking.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia ended a three-year moratorium on drug-related executions. Foreigners “are often exploited by big drug traffickers who take advantage of their vulnerability,” explains Mr. Hajji, adding “that they suffer a series of human rights violations, from their arrest to their execution.”
Saudi Arabia has executed more than 100 foreigners since the start of 2024, according to an AFP count based on official announcements, a toll which constitutes a new record, according to a human rights group.
On Saturday, “Moussa Saleh, Yemeni national” was executed in Najran (south), for drug trafficking,…
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