Under MBS, Saudi Arabia’s Executions Surge to Unprecedented Levels

Saudi Arabia has executed more people this year than in any year on record, setting a grim new milestone for the second consecutive year. According to the UK-based rights group Reprieve, at least 347 individuals have been put to death in 2025, surpassing last year's total of 345 in what the group calls the “bloodiest year of executions in the kingdom since monitoring began.”

The surge is largely fueled by a revived “war on drugs.” Approximately two-thirds of those executed were convicted of non-lethal, drug-related offenses, a practice the UN calls “incompatible with international norms and standards.” This crackdown intensified after Saudi authorities ended an unofficial moratorium on such executions in late 2022. More than half of those killed for drug crimes were foreign nationals, raising concerns about due process and fair representation.

This escalation presents a stark contradiction in the narrative of a modernizing Saudi Arabia, championed by its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). While he has curbed the power of the religious police, opened the kingdom to tourism, and allowed women to drive, he has simultaneously overseen an intensified crackdown on dissent and crime. “There's been no cost for Mohammed bin Salman and his authorities for going ahead with these executions,” said Joey Shea, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The entertainment events, the sporting events, all of it is continuing to happen with no repercussions, really.”

The dragnet extends beyond drug offenses. Among those executed this year were journalist Turki al-Jasser and two young men, Abdullah al-Derazi and Jalal al-Labbad, who were minors at the time of their alleged protest-related crimes. Amnesty International described their trials as “grossly unfair” and reliant on torture-tainted confessions. Reprieve’s Jeed Basyouni described torture and forced confessions as “endemic” within the Saudi criminal justice system, calling the situation a “brutal and arbitrary crackdown.”

Families of the condemned live in a state of terror. One relative told the BBC anonymously, “The only time of the week that I sleep is on Friday and Saturday because there are no executions on those days.” According to Reprieve, families are often not notified in advance of the execution, nor are they given the body or told of the burial location.

The Saudi authorities did not respond to the BBC’s recent request for comment. However, in a January 2025 letter replying to UN concerns, they stated that the kingdom “protects and upholds” human rights and that its laws “prohibit and punish torture.” The letter claimed, “The death penalty is imposed only for the most serious crimes and in extremely limited circumstances.”

Meanwhile, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz, has called for an immediate moratorium on executions in Saudi Arabia “with a view to abolition,” pressing for full compliance with international safeguards.