Saudi Arabia executed two individuals on Monday, August 4, for “terrorist crimes,” bringing the total number of executions over the past three days to 17, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
These latest executions followed a weekend wave in which 15 people—mostly foreign nationals—were put to death for drug-related offenses. Thirteen were convicted of smuggling hashish, while one was executed for smuggling cocaine. Monday’s executions marked the first for terrorism-related offenses since the recent surge.
This represents the fastest pace of capital punishment in the kingdom since March 2022, when 81 people were executed in a single day for terrorism-related crimes, an act that attracted widespread international condemnation.
Saudi Arabia, known as one of the world’s leading users of the death penalty, has carried out 239 executions so far in 2025. This figure includes 161 executions for drug offenses and 136 involving foreign nationals, according to an AFP analysis of official announcements.
The kingdom is on track to exceed the 338 executions recorded in 2024, the highest annual total since public records began in the early 1990s.
Jeed Basyouni, a representative of the UK-based human rights group Reprieve, expressed alarm over the increase in executions, especially for hashish-related drug offenses. “This is particularly concerning given the global trend toward decriminalising the possession and use of hashish,” she told AFP. Basyouni also pointed out that foreign nationals constitute the majority of those executed for such crimes.
Analysts link the surge in executions to Saudi Arabia’s intensified “war on drugs” launched in 2023. Many of those recently executed were arrested in the early phases of the campaign and have since been sentenced to death following legal proceedings.
Although the kingdom had suspended executions for drug offenses for nearly three years, it resumed the practice at the end of 2022. The government asserts that all executions follow due process and are necessary to uphold national security and deter crime.
However, human rights advocates argue that continuing to impose the death penalty, particularly on low-level drug offenders, contradicts efforts to portray Saudi Arabia as a more progressive and open society—an essential part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform agenda.
