Saudi Arabia Executes 198 in 2024, Marking the Highest Number in Over Three Decades – AFP Report
DUBAI — Saudi Arabia has embarked on a significant surge in executions, hitting a 30-year apex. With three more executions announced on Saturday, the 2024 tally skyrocketed to 198, per AFP’s count.
The kingdom ranks third globally in executions, trailing only China and Iran, Amnesty International reported for 2023.
This latest figure supercedes previous peaks of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995, according to the London-based human rights organization, which has been documenting annual data since 1990.
The Saudi Press Agency reported the recent executions with a statement from the interior ministry.
The 198 executions in 2024 contrast with 170 in 2023, said AFP from official sources.
Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia on Saturday of “carrying out a relentless execution spree,” confirming its own count of 198 executions in the kingdom this year.
This oil powerhouse continues to face harsh criticism over its death penalty practices, condemned by human rights groups as draconian and misaligned with Saudi Arabia’s efforts to revamp its international image.
Amnesty’s secretary-general, Agnes Callamard, accused Riyadh of showing “a chilling disregard for human life while promoting a facade of reform.” She urged the kingdom to “impose an immediate ban on executions and order retrials for those on death row, aligning with international standards and abolishing the death penalty.”
Broken Promises
Jeed Basyouni, who leads Middle East anti-death penalty advocacy for Reprieve, stated that the new record indicates “Saudi Arabia has abandoned the facade of death penalty reforms.”
“Promises made in prior years have either been unfulfilled or outright reversed,” Basyouni said.
This year’s executions included 32 individuals convicted of terrorism-related crimes and 52 for drug offenses, based on AFP’s compilation.
Amnesty International disclosed the previous record of 196 executions in 2022 through a letter from the Saudi human rights commission, although AFP only counted 147 for that year.
Historically, data before 1990 remains murky, but The Washington Post noted that 63 individuals were executed in 1980 following the Grand Mosque seizure in Mecca by Islamist militants a year earlier.
Saudi Arabia’s largest mass execution occurred in March 2022 when 81 people were executed in a single day.
Riyadh has claimed that the death penalty is essential to “maintain public order,” with executions carried out only after defendants “exhaust all litigation avenues.”
The continually high number of executions seems to contradict statements from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who told The Atlantic in 2022 that the kingdom had significantly reduced capital punishment, restricting it to cases of murder or large-scale threats.
‘Dramatic Uptick’
Basyouni remarked that Western pressure on Saudi Arabia has “diminished considerably in the last year,” giving the kingdom more leeway to act as it pleases.
Duaa Dhaini, a researcher at the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, said the motives behind the increased executions remain unclear. These death sentences could serve to decongest prisons or “send a message of intimidation,” targeting both criminals and political adversaries.
This spike comes amid rising executions for drug offenses this year.
The kingdom ended its three-year hiatus on executing drug offenders in late 2022, executing 19 individuals in a month.
Edited by: Ali Musa
Axadle international–Monitoring
