In the firsts 10 months of the current year, Saudi Arabia put 101 foreign citizens to death based on various charges. The registered record of the Saudi conducts on human rights says that the figure is the greatest persons executed in less than a year. The figure is almost over 200% over the number of foreigners that were put to death in the preceding two years.
Human rights activists have associated the country with employing the death sentence at a level that is unparalleled. The majority of the executions were triggered by drug-related crimes. Non-Saudi nationals were engaged in 69 cases of the 92 deaths in 2024 that were connected to drug-related charges.
The European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights’ legal director claims that foreign nationals are the greatest disadvantaged class in Saudi society. The director of ESOHR went on to say that they regularly become subject to aggressive drug criminal groups. The victims are also “subjected to a series of violations from the moment of their arrest until their execution.”
Relatives of death sentence convicts endure chronic stress as the rate of deaths keeps increasing. It appears that households of foreign nationals on execution row are afraid that their relatives will be the next individual to die.
AFP reports that 20 foreigners from Yemen and 21 others from Pakistan were among those murdered in 2024. Ten are originally Nigerian, nine are Egyptian, and fourteen are Syrian. Having eight and seven victims, respectively, Jordan and Ethiopia are ranked in the middle of the list. Additionally, the victims included three from Afghanistan, India, and Sudan. In addition, there was one from the Philippines, Eritrea, and Sri Lanka.
Adoption of the death punishment has come under growing criticism in recent years. According to humanitarian groups, Saudi Arabia is third-biggest prisoner executioner in the entire world. It happens following the recent year’s overhaul in the country’s traditional religion-base system of ruling and governance.
The Kingdom’s Crown Prince has previously made remarks that are refuted by the substantial amount of death penalties in 2024. In a conversation with The Atlantic thinktank two years ago, bin Salman asserted that the death sentences had been suspended in his administration He did, however, make an exemption for homicide cases or instances when a significant number of people are at risk.
