Record 101 Foreigners Executed in Saudi Barbaria (incl. 7 Ethiopians)

👹 Saudi Arabia has executed more than 100 foreigners since the beginning of 2024, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). The tally is based on official announcements and marks a new record, added a human rights group.

The Saudi news agency reported that on Saturday, a Yemeni citizen was executed after being found guilty of smuggling drugs. The execution of Moussa Mohammed Abdullah Saleh was carried out in Najran. It was execution number 101 of foreigners in the kingdom since January.

The legal director of the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), based in Berlin, said, “This is the largest number of executions of foreigners in one year.” In both 2022 and 2023, added Taha Al-Hajji, the annual number of foreigners executed in Saudi Arabia rose to 34.

Saudi Arabia faces repeated criticism for its excessive use of the death penalty. Human rights organisations argue that these executions undermine the efforts made by Saudi Arabia to polish its image through social and economic reforms under the “Vision 2030” initiative overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

The kingdom ranked third on the list of countries with the highest number of executions in the world in 2022 and 2023, following China and Iran, according to Amnesty International. AFP pointed out that by September Saudi Arabia had executed 198 individuals since the beginning of 2024, the highest number of executions carried out in one year in over 30 years. By yesterday, 274 people had been executed in the kingdom since January.

Among the foreigners executed since the beginning of 2024 were 21 Pakistanis, 20 Yemenis, 14 Syrians, 10 Nigerians, nine Egyptians, eight Jordanians and seven Ethiopians. Sudanese, Indians, Afghans, Sri Lankans, Eritreans and Filipinos were also executed. Of these, 69 were executed on drug trafficking charges.