In July 2024, Saudi Arabia executed 15 individuals convicted on drug charges, accounting for 83% of the total 18 drug-related executions carried out since the beginning of the year. Since the start of 2024 until the end of July, Saudi Arabia has executed 126 people, 14% of whom were convicted of drug-related offenses, with July alone accounting for 31% of the year's total executions.
According to the Ministry of Interior data, the nationalities of those executed since the beginning of 2024 are as follows: Saudi Arabia: 3, Syria: 5, Nigeria: 3, Jordan: 2, Pakistan: 3, Sudan: 1, Egypt: 1. The charges listed in the data include smuggling, receiving, and promoting drugs.
The Saudi judicial system has significant flaws. In addition to the lack of transparency in official dealings, intimidation and terror prevail among prisoners, preventing them from speaking out about the abuses they have suffered. Documented official practices in several cases reveal that many detainees have been subjected to torture, mistreatment, unfair trials, and subsequently arbitrary sentences.
While foreigners make up 83% of all those executed on drug charges, it is likely that they faced additional violations, including being deprived of the right to adequate self-defense, the right to translation, and the right to communicate with their families and the outside world. These issues were previously documented in cases of foreigners by the organization in cases of foreigners who were executed.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights believes that the execution of individuals on drug charges reflects the true nature of the Saudi government's handling of human rights issues, despite the significant promises and changes seen in recent years.
- • From January 2020 to November 2022, Saudi Arabia halted executions for drug-related offenses.
- • In January 2021, the official Saudi Human Rights Commission issued a statement announcing this halt. The former chairman of the commission, Awad Al-Awad, stated that Saudi Arabia had stopped executions for drug-related offenses to "give individuals facing non-violent charges a second chance."
- • In March 2022, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the death penalty was now limited to cases where one person kills another, thus giving the victim's family the right to seek court intervention or pardon. He mentioned that Saudi Arabia had "eliminated" the death penalty except for one category mentioned in the Quran, signaling a halt to discretionary death sentences based on the judge's opinion.
- • On November 10, 2022, Saudi Arabia resumed discretionary executions for drug-related offenses, executing 20 individuals in one month for such charges.
- • Saudi Arabia halted executions for drug offenses from August 2023 to May 11, 2024, a nine-month period before resuming the executions.
- • In July 2024, Saudi Arabia rejected a recommendation from countries during its Universal Periodic Review to stop executions for drug-related offenses.
During these years, Saudi Arabia faced numerous criticisms. With the resumption of executions after nearly a two-year halt, six UN special rapporteurs stated that the return of executions was a violation of the right to life. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called on Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a Jordanian citizen sentenced to death for drug charges after he faced severe violations during his trial stages.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights believes that the high number of executions for drug-related offenses demonstrates Saudi Arabia's insistence on using the death penalty as a convenient approach to dealing with the drug problem, without any on-the-ground indicators of addressing the issue. The organization also considers the handling of drug-related death penalty cases to reflect a lack of trust in any official promises and increasing concerns for the lives of those currently threatened. While Saudi Arabia conceals the numbers and information, it is expected that the number of individuals sentenced to death for drug charges is high, especially with the security campaigns conducted last year under the banner of the war on drugs.