Overview
- Riyadh has executed 180 people in 2025, including 46 in June, marking a rise to more than one execution per day last month.
- Approximately 66 percent of 2025’s executions were for drug offences despite international law norms opposing capital punishment for such crimes.
- Three quarters of those sentenced to death for drug offences are foreign nationals, primarily from Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt and Somalia.
- Since 2014, Saudi Arabia has carried out about 1,800 executions, with last year’s 345 deaths representing the highest annual figure in over three decades.
- Human rights advocates warn that the execution surge threatens the kingdom’s reform efforts and casts doubt on its preparations to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.