“A murderous madness”: 198 people were executed in 2024 by Saudi Arabia, a record for more than 30 years

Saudi Arabia executed 198 people in 2024 according to an AFP count based on official media, after the death of three prisoners announced this Saturday, September 27, 2024 by the official Saudi press agency, a record in more than thirty years.

Saudi Arabia is the country that executed the most prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to the NGO Amnesty International, which has been counting executions in this wealthy Gulf monarchy since 1990 following a rigorous application of Islamic law.

According to the same source, the previous record was 196 executions in 2022.

“A frightening disregard for human life”

Amnesty International accused the Saudi authorities on Saturday of “to indulge in a murderous spree”, confirming 198 executions in the Gulf monarchy since the beginning of the year, according to its own tally.

Riyadh's use of the death penalty has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups as excessive and out of step with Saudi Arabia's efforts to present a modern, reformist image internationally.

Agnes Callamard, the organization's secretary general, said Riyadh was displaying “a chilling disregard for human life while waging an empty campaign to polish its image image".

She urged Saudi Arabia to "immediately establish a moratorium on executions and order that those sentenced to death be retried in accordance with international standards, without resorting to the death penalty".

Jeed Basyouni, Middle East director of Reprieve, an NGO that campaigns against the death penalty, said the new record showed that "Saudi Arabia has given up on the pretense of reforming its use of the death penalty".

"Recent promises have either failed to materialize or been reversed,", he said. According to Mr Basyouni, Western pressure on Saudi Arabia has “significantly decreased in recent years”, Riyadh feels “free to behave as it wishes”.

Executions on “sharp increase” 

In 2024, Saudi Arabia executed 52 people convicted of drug-related offences and 32 for terrorism, according to an AFP tally based on official data. While figures prior to 1990 are unclear, the largest mass execution was in March 2022, when 81 people were put to death in one day.

According to Riyadh, the use of the death penalty is necessary to “maintain public order" and sentences are only carried out if “the accused have exhausted all appeals".

The continued high number of executions contradicts statements by the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, assuring the American magazine The Atlantic in 2022 that his kingdom had eliminated the death penalty, except for criminals or individuals endangering lives.

This new record of executions comes against a backdrop of an increase in death sentences in drug cases.

In September, 31 Arab and international human rights organizations jointly denounced a "sharp increase" in executions of drug convicts, while in 2022, the United Nations had called on the Saudi authorities to "put an end to to the application of the death penalty in these cases”.