Executions in Saudi Arabia reach a record high mostly over drug cases, Amnesty says

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Executions in Saudi Arabia surged last year to a record high, Amnesty International said Monday, as activists increasingly warn about the kingdom’s use of the death penalty in nonviolent drug cases.

Saudi Arabia executed 345 people last year, the highest number ever recorded by Amnesty in over three decades of reporting. In the first six months of this year alone, 180 people have been put to death, the group said, signaling that record likely will again be broken.

This year, about two-thirds of those executed were convicted on non-lethal drug charges, the activist group Reprieve said separately. Amnesty also has raised similar concerns about executions in drug cases.

Saudi Arabia has not offered any comment on why it increasingly employs the death penalty in the kingdom. Saudi officials did not respond to detailed questions from The Associated Press about the executions and why it is using the death penalty for nonviolent drug cases.

However, it conflicts with comments from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler, who in 2022 highlighted he limited its use to just homicide cases.

“Well about the death penalty, we got rid of all of it, except for one category, and this one is written in the Quran, and we cannot do anything about it, even if we wished to do something, because it is clear teaching in the Quran,” the prince told The Atlantic.

Saudi Arabia is one of several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, that can levy the death penalty on drug-related charges. But the kingdom remains one of the world’s top executioners behind only China and Iran – and its use of executions in drug cases appear to be fueling that.

Amnesty documented the cases of 25 foreign nationals who are currently on death row, or were recently executed, for drug-related offenses. In those cases, Amnesty said the inmates on death row were not familiar with the legal system nor their rights, and had limited to no legal representation. Foreign nationals faced additional challenges when trying to secure a fair trial, Amnesty said.

One such national, Egyptian Essam Ahmed, disappeared in 2021 while working on a fishing boat in Sinai. A month later, his family received word he had been detained in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to death for drug trafficking. Ahmed claims he was forced by the boat’s owner to carry a package for him at gunpoint.

“We’re living in terror, we’re scared every morning,” said a family member of Ahmed’s, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity fearing his comments could impact the case. “Every morning until 9 a.m., we’re afraid that they took one of them for execution without us knowing.”

The family member added: “We don’t have feelings. We’re dead. Death would be easier. … They didn’t even give me a chance to defend him and I don’t know what to do.”

Human rights groups for years have been critical of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. There also have been rapid societal changes in Saudi Arabia under King Salman and the crown prince. While pushing for women to drive, the kingdom has overseen the arrest of women’s rights activists. While calling for foreign investment, Saudi Arabia also has imprisoned businessmen, royals and others in a crackdown on corruption that soon resembled a shakedown of the kingdom’s most powerful people.

In 2021, as part of the crown prince’s criminal justice overhaul, Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission announced a moratorium on drug-related executions. The moratorium, however, remained in place for just under three years, before it was scrapped without an explanation.

The executions also come as the kingdom continues to undertake bold reforms to diversify its economy as part of its “Vision 2030” initiative.

Jeed Basyouni, who directs Britain-based legal nonprofit Reprieve’s Middle East and North Africa program, insisted Prince Mohammed could change Saudi Arabia’s execution policy rapidly if he wanted.

“He could do mass pardons. He could insist on rewriting laws so that they are in line with international law,” Basyouni said. “The billions spent on so-called reforms, designed to promote a more tolerant and inclusive kingdom under the crown prince’s rule, mask an authoritarian state where daily executions for drug crimes are now the norm.”