Saudi Arabia has set a new record for executions in a single year after authorities confirmed that three people were executed on Monday, bringing the total number of executions in 2025 to 340. The kingdom now trails only China and Iran globally in the use of the death penalty.
This marks the second consecutive year Saudi Arabia has broken its own execution record since rights groups began tracking the figures in the 1990s. In 2024, the country carried out 338 executions.
According to a statement from the interior ministry published by the Saudi Press Agency, the three individuals executed on Monday were convicted of murder and put to death in the Mecca region.
Official data shows that 232 of the 340 executions carried out so far this year were for drug-related offences, making up the majority of cases. Analysts attribute the sharp rise largely to the kingdom’s intensified “war on drugs,” launched in 2023. Many of those executed were arrested earlier and have only now reached the end of lengthy legal processes.
Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences in late 2022 after a roughly three-year suspension. The country is a major destination for captagon, an illegal stimulant that was once Syria’s largest export under former president Bashar al-Assad. Since stepping up its anti-drug campaign, Saudi authorities have expanded police checkpoints on highways and borders, seizing millions of pills and arresting dozens of traffickers. Foreign nationals have been disproportionately affected.
The kingdom continues to face strong criticism from human rights groups over its use of capital punishment, which they describe as excessive and inconsistent with international law. Critics argue that executing non-violent drug offenders, many of whom are foreigners, violates global standards that restrict the death penalty to cases of intentional homicide.
Rights advocates also say the policy undermines Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 agenda, which aims to project Saudi Arabia as a modern and open society while attracting tourists and hosting major international events such as the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Saudi authorities, however, maintain that the death penalty is essential for preserving public order and insist it is applied only after all legal appeals have been exhausted.
Amnesty International, which has tracked executions in the kingdom since 1990, lists Saudi Arabia as the world’s third-highest executor of death sentences in 2022, 2023 and 2024, behind only China and Iran.
