Saudi foreign executions top 100 after two Ethiopians put to death

AFP — Saudi Arabia put two Ethiopians to death July 10, pushing this year's number of foreigners executed past 100 — a spike in capital punishment that human rights groups have strongly condemned.

The pair were executed on drug charges, the interior ministry said, bringing AFP's tally of foreigners put to death since the beginning of the year to at least 101.

"Khalil Qasim Muhammad Omar and Murad Yaqub Adam Siyo — both of Ethiopian nationality — were found guilty of smuggling hashish," read the statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.

"Upon referral to the competent court, a verdict was issued confirming the charges against them and sentencing them to death."

In total, 189 people have been executed in 2025, according to AFP's count, including 88 Saudis.

In 2024, the 100-foreigners execution mark was only surpassed in November in the Gulf kingdom, one of the world's leading users of the death penalty.

According to a previous AFP tally, at least 338 people were executed last year, compared with 170 in 2023 — far surpassing the previously known record of 196 in 2022.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International lambasted the spike in executions, calling it a "relentless and ruthless use of the death penalty after grossly unfair trials", according to Kristine Beckerle, the group's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"We are witnessing a truly horrifying trend, with foreign nationals being put to death at a startling rate for crimes that should never carry the death penalty," she added.

After a moratorium of about three years, Saudi authorities resumed executions for drug-related crimes at the end of 2022.

Amnesty also highlighted that foreigners face additional barriers to receiving a fair trial in Saudi Arabia, notably due to the lack of transparency in the judicial system and their non-citizen status.

'Authoritarian state'

The London-based rights organisation Reprieve also condemned the rise in drug-related executions earlier this month, noting that foreigners accounted for more than half of the executions recorded in 2025 with the vast majority sentenced for drug-related offenses.

"In [Saudi Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia you can attend a rave in the desert, but you can also be executed for smoking hashish," said Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve's head of death penalty projects in the Middle East, referring to the country's crown prince and de-facto ruler.

"The billions spent promoting a more tolerant and inclusive kingdom under the Crown Prince's rule mask an authoritarian state where daily executions for drug crimes are now the norm."

The kingdom drew global condemnation after the 2018 murder and dismemberment of US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a government critic, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia is spending big on tourist infrastructure and top sports events such as the 2034 World Cup as it tries to diversify its oil-reliant economy.

But activists say the kingdom's continued embrace of capital punishment undermines the image of a more open, tolerant society that is central to Prince Mohammed's Vision 2030 reform agenda.

Saudi authorities say the death penalty is necessary to maintain public order and is only used after all avenues for appeal have been exhausted.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, July 11, 2025

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