Saudi Arabia recorded a second consecutive yearly record for executions in 2025, according to data released by rights groups. The organization Reprieve, which tracks death penalties in the kingdom, said 347 people have been executed since the start of the year, compared with 345 in all of last year.
Agence France-Presse also reported a new record last week, saying 340 people had been executed so far this year, compared with 338 in 2024. According to the reports, only Iran and China carry out more executions than Saudi Arabia.
The BBC, citing Reprieve, reported that the most recent executions included two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug offenses. Those put to death this year also include a journalist and two young men who were minors at the time of the offenses attributed to them, which were linked to protests. Five of those executed were women.
Reprieve and AFP said most of the executions carried out in 2025 involved drug-related offenses, a practice the United Nations has said is “incompatible with international norms and standards.” Reprieve reported that more than half of those executed were foreign nationals sentenced to death as part of the kingdom’s “war on drugs.” Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offenses in late 2022 after a three-year pause.
Jeed Basyouni, who heads Reprieve’s death penalty work in the Middle East and North Africa, told the BBC that Saudi Arabia pays no price for carrying out executions. “It's almost making a mockery of the human rights system,” she said. “It almost seems that it doesn't matter to them who they execute, as long as they send a message to society that there's a zero-tolerance policy on whatever issue they're talking about - whether it's protests, freedom of expression, or drugs.”
Basyouni described the policy as a “brutal and arbitrary crackdown” against innocent people and those on the margins of society. She said Saudi Arabia’s justice system suffers from an “endemic” of torture and forced confessions extracted from defendants.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, has sought in recent years to slightly soften Saudi Arabia’s conservative character. He aims to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil revenues and has opened the country to the world in an effort to draw closer to the West. Human rights organizations, however, say the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia remains “abysmal.”
“There's been no cost for Mohammed bin Salman and his authorities for going ahead with these executions,” said Joey Shea, a Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The entertainment events, the sporting events, all of it is continuing to happen with no repercussions, really.”
Last month, Mohammed bin Salman visited President Donald Trump at the White House. During that visit, Trump drew criticism when he defended the Saudi crown prince after being asked about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying Mohammed bin Salman was doing “an amazing job” on human rights.
The BBC reported that Saudi authorities do not disclose the method of execution, though it is believed to involve firing squads or beheading. According to Reprieve, families of those executed are typically not notified in advance and are later not told where the bodies are buried.