SAUDI Arabia executed at least 356 people in 2025, marking the highest number of executions in a single year since monitoring began and breaking the record set just one year earlier, Human Rights Watch has reported.
The 2025 total surpasses the 345 executions recorded in 2024, representing the second consecutive year Saudi authorities have set a new execution record.
Foreign nationals convicted of nonlethal drug offences accounted for the majority of executions, according to data compiled by Reprieve and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights. Of the 356 executed, 240 had been convicted of drug-related offences, with 188 of those being foreign nationals. Authorities executed 98 people solely for hashish-related charges.
“The close of 2025 crystallised a horrifying trend in Saudi Arabia with a record surge in executions for the second consecutive year,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Governments should immediately press Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authorities to halt all executions.”
The executions included at least two men convicted of crimes allegedly committed when they were children. Saudi authorities executed Abdullah al-Derazi on October 20 for terrorism charges related to participating in protests and funeral processions when he was 17 in 2012. Al-Derazi belonged to the country’s Shia Muslim minority.
On August 21, authorities executed Jalal al-Labbad, who was 15 at the time of his alleged offences. Saudi authorities arrested him in 2017 for participating in demonstrations and funeral processions. Both men were allegedly tortured while detained, according to ESOHR.
Several defendants accused of committing crimes as children remain at imminent risk of execution, Human Rights Watch said.
Saudi authorities also executed journalist Turki al-Jasser on June 14. Al-Jasser was known for exposing corruption within the Saudi royal family, raising concerns that the government is using capital punishment to silence peaceful dissent.
International human rights law, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights ratified by Saudi Arabia, requires countries that use the death penalty to reserve it only for the “most serious crimes” in exceptional circumstances. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement in November 2022 expressing alarm over Saudi Arabia’s execution rate after the kingdom ended a 21-month unofficial moratorium on executions for drug-related offences.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a party, includes an absolute prohibition on capital punishment for crimes committed by minors.
Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances as inherently inhumane, irreversible, and plagued by arbitrariness and error.
“Celebrities, athletes, and others seeking to cash in on Saudi whitewashing of its human rights record should reconsider based on the number of executions during 2025 to determine whether the money is worth being associated with this killing spree,” Shea said.
