The Saudi government has reportedly executed at least 356 citizens in 2025. The figure is a new record of executions within a year since citizens began monitoring and reporting human rights cases in Saudi Arabia. The new execution rate has beaten the previous 2024 record of 345 executions, showing a disturbing rising trend of use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia and a systematic repression of its people by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS.
Saudi authorities executed at least 356 people in 2025, setting a new record in the country for the highest number of executions in one year since monitoring began.
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) January 13, 2026
This is the second year in a row that Saudi authorities have set a new execution record. https://t.co/kpkyJu62YK
“The close of 2025 crystallized a horrifying trend in Saudi Arabia with a record surge in executions for the second consecutive year,”
said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Governments should immediately press Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authorities to halt all executions.”
Drug crimes and foreign nationals drive the surge
The main reason for the increase in the number of executions carried out in 2025 is the use of the death penalty for non-lethal drug crimes, which has been widely criticized from the perspective of international law. According to ESOhHR and Reprieve,
“240 people have been executed for drug-related crimes; 188 were foreign nationals, many from countries such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Yemen.”
The Saudi authorities have been proven to have executed 98 inmates for no other crime than related to hashish, highlighting the disproportionate number of executions carried out for a relatively minor offense. Also, according to Amnesty International, it is stated that some countries, which practice executing inmates for a drug crime, such as Iran and Indonesia, have been widely criticized by the global community for violating human rights standards.
This trend has enormous diplomatic as well as economic implications, as the countries whose nationals have been executed have consistently submitted official complaints, while foreign companies risk having their reputation tarnished through association with the Saudi Government.
Executions of minors and political dissidents
The 2025 tally included at least two men executed for crimes committed as children, in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a party.
- On October 20, Abdullah al-Derazi, a Shia Muslim who had allegedly participated in protests and funeral processions at age 17 in 2012, was executed. He reportedly endured torture while in detention.
- On August 21, Jalal al-Labbad, who was 15 at the time of the alleged offenses, was also executed for participating in demonstrations and funeral processions.
Rights group Human Rights Watch also reports that several other defendants who were convicted of crimes committed when they were minors are pending execution, including Yousef al-Manasif, Ali al-Mabiouq, Jawad Qureiris, Ali al-Subaiti, Hassan al-Faraj, and Mahdi al-Moh
The executions have also been carried out against journalists and anti-corruption activists. On June 14, Turki al-Jasser, a journalist who reported corruption within the royal family, was executed, indicating a possible misuse of the death sentence as a means to silence peaceful protesters and activists.
Violation of international law and human rights norms
The practices of Saudi Arabia are at variance with international human rights laws and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, according to which “the use of capital punishment may be restricted to the ‘most serious crimes’ and should be reserved for ‘exceptional cases.’ The Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights of the United Nations was alarmed at the lifting of Saudi Arabia’s moratorium on individuals being executed for drug-related crimes in 2022.
Human rights bodies consider the death penalty as inherently cruel and arbitrary and state that it discriminately targets marginalized sections of society, foreigners, and political dissenters. The irreversible nature of the death penalty is even more alarming in cases of torture and coerced confessions.
Joey Shea, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, cautioned celebrities, sports figures, as well as investors who do business with the government of Saudi Arabia, “to justify their involvement” given the extent of the mass executions carried out by the government in 2025.
The execution rate in Saudi Arabia can be linked with larger issues of authoritarian consolidation and discrimination, which have particularly targeted Shia communities and foreign workers in the Arabian nation. It has been observed that the large number of executions for petty offenses have marked a deliberate pattern of deterrence by making an example in Saudi Arabia, which has heightened tensions with human rights activists and foreign governments, respectively.
While MBS has marketed Saudi Arabia as pursuing economic modernization and global partnerships, the stark increase in executions undermines these efforts, threatening diplomatic relations and fuelling criticism of the kingdom’s human rights record. The global community, including the EU, UN, and U.S., faces increasing pressure to respond to the kingdom’s legal and moral violations.