Saudi Arabia set a new record for the number of executions carried out in a single year, according to an AFP tally, with the kingdom killing 340 people so far this year after authorities said three people were put to death on Monday.
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The toll marks the second-straight year Saudi Arabia has broken its own record since rights groups first began documenting the number of executions in the 1990s. The kingdom executed 338 people in 2024, an AFP tally showed.
A statement by the interior ministry carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said three individuals were executed in the Mecca region for murder convictions.
Since the start of 2025, Saudi Arabia has executed 232 people in drug-related cases, constituting the majority of the 340 executions carried out so far, according to AFP’s tally based on ministry and SPA announcements.
Analysts have largely linked the surge in executions to the kingdom’s ongoing “war on drugs” launched in 2023, with many of those first arrested only now being executed following their legal proceedings and convictions.
Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences at the end of 2022, after suspending the use of the death penalty in narcotics cases for around three years.
The Arab world’s largest economy is also one of the biggest markets for captagon, an illicit stimulant that was Syria’s largest export under Bashar al-Assad – according to the United Nations. Assad was ousted last year.
Since launching its war on drugs, the country has increased the presence of police checkpoints on highways and at border crossings, where millions of pills have been confiscated and dozens of traffickers arrested.
Foreigners are largely bearing the brunt of the campaign to date.
Saudi Arabia has long relied on millions of foreign workers to help build its vast infrastructure projects, serve as domestic help for families and staff hotels and other sectors linked to the hospitality industry.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of oil, has faced consistent criticism over its use of the death penalty, which rights groups have condemned as excessive and in marked contrast to the kingdom’s efforts to present a modern image to the world.
Amnesty International began documenting executions in Saudi Arabia in 1990. Figures dating from before then are largely unclear.
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