This year, Saudi Arabia has executed over 100 foreigners, according to an AFP count. This is a dramatic rise that one rights organization called unprecedented.
A Yemeni migrant found guilty of importing narcotics into the Gulf kingdom was executed on Saturday in the southwest part of Najran, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Based on the figure derived from state media reporting, that increased the total number of foreigners killed in 2024 to 101.
This is nearly three times the number for 2023 and 2022, when AFP estimates that Saudi authorities executed 34 foreigners year.
According to the European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), located in Berlin, this year’s executions have already shattered previous records.
This is the most foreigners that have been executed in a single year. The group’s legal director, Taha al-Hajji, stated that Saudi Arabia had never killed 100 foreigners in a single year.
Human rights organizations have denounced Saudi Arabia’s use of the death sentence as excessive and inconsistent with its attempts to improve its repressive image and attract foreign businessmen and tourists.
As per Amnesty International, the oil-rich country executed the third-highest number of detainees worldwide in 2023, after China and Iran.
A total of 21 foreigners from Pakistan, 20 out of Yemen, 14 from Syria, 10 from Nigeria, 9 from Egypt, 8 from Jordan, and 7 from Ethiopia were among those put to death this year.
Additionally, there were one each from Sri Lanka, Eritrea, and the Philippines, and three each from Sudan, India, and Afghanistan.
