Saudi Arabia executes 330 people in 2024, highest in decades despite reform claims

Saudi Arabia has executed 330 people this year, the highest number in decades despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 2022 promise that the death penalty would be abolished, except for cases of murder as part of his vision for a new open kingdom.

Under the Vision 2030 plan, which aims to transform the country into a tourism and entertainment hub, Saudi Arabia has been spending billions to improve its global image, which has long been associated with strict religious policies and human rights violations.

The latest execution toll compiled by the human rights organisation Reprieve represents a sizeable increase from last year’s total of 172 and the 196 executions in 2022. The rights body said that the 330 executions this year is the highest number ever recorded.

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”This reform is built on a house of cards that is built on record numbers of executions,” said Jeed Basyouni, who works with Reprieve.

Saudi Arabia denies accusations of human rights abuses and says its actions are aimed at protecting national security.

More than 150 people were executed for non-lethal crimes this year, according to the tally, which rights groups say is contrary to international law.

Those executions were mainly related to alleged drug smuggling amid a flood of amphetamine-like captagon from Syria under ousted President Bashar al-Assad. They also included people charged with non-lethal terrorism, a charge rights groups say is often used against those who have participated in anti-government protests.

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Previously the record number of executions in a single year in the country had stood at 196 in 2022, according to Amnesty International.

Saudi executed more than 100 foreign nationals this year, AFP reported in November this year.

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia executed the third-highest number of prisoners across the world after China and Iran in 2023.

In September this year, the Gulf country carried out its highest number of executions in more than three decades, surpassing its previous highs of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995.

After taking power in a palace coup in 2017, MbS faced international censure for cracking down on dissent and for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Saudi Arabia has maintained that Khashoggi’s killing was carried out by a rogue group, although MbS has said that he bears ultimate responsibility because it happened under his watch.

Western governments largely shunned the kingdom following Khashoggi’s death. U.S. President Joe Biden, during his 2020 candidacy for the office, said he would make Saudi Arabia a ”pariah”, but in 2022 visited the kingdom and fist bumped MbS.

Rights groups have accused the country of sentencing minors to death and using torture to extract confessions.

For decades Saudi Arabia held weekly executions by beheading with a sword in a public square; now that same area is dominated by cafes and restaurants with almost no sign of its bloody past.

”Repression is increasing, but you don’t see it,” said Dana Ahmed, MENA researcher at Amnesty International.

Relatives of people on death row, who did not wish to share their names due to security concerns, told Reuters they faced difficulties with the Saudi legal system.

A relative of one foreign national arrested on drug charges said he had simply been fishing near the coast and had no lawyer or representative in Saudi Arabia.

A family member of another defendant said they had heard no evidence against him despite attending sessions in the criminal court for more than three years.

Reuters was unable to verify the accounts independently.

MbS told the Atlantic in a 2022 interview that Saudi Arabia had eliminated the death penalty, except in cases of murder, which he said he was powerless to change since it is punishable by death according to the Koran.

With inputs from agencies.