In 2024, Saudi Arabia killed 101 foreigners, the most executions in the kingdom’s history in a single year. The number is almost three times as many foreigners as were put to death in 2022 and 2023 (34 each year). Human rights organizations have charged the monarchy with using the death sentence at an unprecedented level. Many of these deaths were caused by drug-related offenses. Foreign nationals were engaged in 69 of the 92 executions this year that were connected to drug-related offenses. “Foreigners are the most vulnerable group,” the news agency AFP cited Taha al-Hajji, the legal head of the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR). “They are often victims of major drug dealers and subjected to a series of violations from the moment of their arrest until their execution.” Families of death row inmates live in continual anxiety as the number of executions keeps rising.
Why Saudis executed over 100 foreigners
Two of the most well-known royals in the nation were among those arrested in the most recent sweep: Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, the king’s only living full brother, and former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Reports that the princes were charged with plotting a coup against Saudi King Salman and the crown prince, often known as MBS, have not received an official response from the Saudi government. International media have given MBS positive publicity since he defeated more powerful opponents to become crown prince in 2017, with several stories highlighting his social and economic changes in the conservative realm. However, the attention has switched to the negative aspects of MBS’s record due to prior arrests, a continuing crackdown on dissent in the kingdom, and the horrific murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. This also includes a sharp increase in the number of executions since his ascension to power and hundreds of civilian fatalities in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia’s high execution rate for foreigners
Saudi Arabia launched an aerial assault against the rapidly expanding Houthi rebels in 2015 as part of its intervention in the civil conflict in neighboring Yemen. To undo their advances, the Saudi-UAE-led alliance has already conducted over 20,000 raids on Houthi-held regions with logistical assistance from the US. The coalition troops commanded by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been charged by human rights organizations for randomly hitting people as well as hospitals, schools, and other facilities. Tens of thousands have died, millions have been displaced, and most of the nation is on the verge of starvation as a result of the protracted conflict; the UN has called Yemen the greatest humanitarian disaster in the world.
Saudi Arabia’s execution surge
MBS justified the Saudi-led involvement in Yemen by stating: “Mistakes are inevitable in any military operation. Naturally, any errors committed by the coalition or Saudi Arabia are inadvertent. “The Arabian Peninsula doesn’t need a new Hezbollah,” he said, alluding to the Lebanese organization supported by Iran.”This is a red line for the entire world, not just Saudi Arabia.” Saad Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, was brutally detained by Saudi security agents during what was intended to be a routine trip to Saudi Arabia. Hariri’s phone was seized upon his arrival in the Saudi capital in November 2017, and he resigned his position live on a Saudi-owned television station the following day.
According to sources who spoke to the Reuters news agency immediately after the incident, Hariri was given his resignation statement to read on television after being called to meet with King Salman and MBS a day after his arrival. The action incited anger in Lebanon since it was widely believed that another nation had kidnapped the prime minister of a sovereign state. As a result of President Michel Aoun’s refusal to accept the resignation and his appeal for the release of his country’s “detained” prime minister, relations between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon were strained. Hariri stayed in the Saudi capital for two weeks and accused Iran and Hezbollah of destabilizing Lebanon.
Over 100 foreigners executed by Saudi Arabia
After French President Emmanuel Macron’s successful mediation efforts, he eventually rescinded his resignation and returned to Beirut a few weeks later. MBS was viewed as one of the main forces behind the strange incident, even if it denied any claims of holding Hariri hostage in the nation or pressuring him to quit. Many people consider Saudi Arabia’s 2018 decision to let women to drive to be a step forward for women’s rights in the nation. Though some Saudi human rights advocates originally pushed for the freedom to drive in the 1990s and have subsequently persisted in openly advocating for it, MBS was widely seen as the driving factor behind the decision.