Saudi Arabia has executed 330 people this year, the highest number in decades, despite de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman’s 2022 claim that the death penalty had been abolished except for murder cases under his vision for a newly open kingdom.
The country is spending billions to transform its reputation from strict religious restrictions and human rights violations into that of a tourism and entertainment hub under the Vision 2030 plan launched by the Crown Prince, also known as MbS.
The latest number of executions, compiled from execution announcements by human rights NGO Reprieve and verified by Reuters, is a big jump from the total of 172 last year and 196 for 2022. Reprieve said this was the highest ever.
“This reform is built on a house of cards built on record numbers of executions,” said Jeed Basyouni, who works at Reprieve.
Saudi Arabia denies allegations of human rights abuses and says its actions are aimed at protecting national security.
According to the count, more than 150 people have been executed this year for non-lethal crimes that rights groups say violate international law.
These executions were mainly linked to alleged drug smuggling amid a flood of amphetamine-like captagon from Syria under deposed President Bashar al-Assad. They also included people accused of non-lethal terrorism, a charge that rights groups say is often used against those who have taken part in anti-government protests.
The total includes more than 100 foreigners from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Saudi Arabia has executed 330 people this year, the highest number in decades (File image of the execution of a drug dealer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1985)
Mohammed bin Salman (pictured) told the Atlantic in a 2022 interview that Saudi Arabia had abolished the death penalty except in cases of murder
The Saudi government communications office did not respond to detailed questions from Reuters about the execution figures.
After taking power in a coup in 2017, MbS faced international criticism for a crackdown on dissent and the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Saudi Arabia has maintained that Khashoggi’s murder was carried out by a rogue group, although MbS has said he bears ultimate responsibility because the killing took place under his watch.
Western governments largely shunned the kingdom after Khashoggi’s death. US President Joe Biden said during his 2020 bid for office that he would make Saudi Arabia a “pariah”, but visited the kingdom in 2022 and bumped his fist against MbS.
Rights groups have accused the country of sentencing minors to death and using torture to extract confessions.
For decades, Saudi Arabia held weekly executions by beheading with a sword in a public square; now that same area is dominated by cafes and restaurants with virtually no trace of its bloody past.
“Repression is increasing, but you don’t see it,” said Dana Ahmed, MENA researcher at Amnesty International.
Relatives of people on death row, who did not want to share their names for security reasons, told Reuters they encountered problems with the Saudi legal system.
A relative of a foreigner arrested for drug abuse said he was simply fishing near the coast and had no lawyer or representative in Saudi Arabia.
A relative of another defendant said they had heard no evidence against him despite having attended criminal court hearings for more than three years.
Reuters could not independently verify the accounts.
MbS told the Atlantic in a 2022 interview that Saudi Arabia had abolished the death penalty except in cases of murder, which he said he was powerless to change as it is punishable by death according to the Quran.