Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, executions in Saudi Arabia reached record-high numbers. Between January 2014 and June 2025, Amnesty International monitored, collated and analysed official information on 1,816 executions. Of the 1,816 people, 597 people were executed for drug-related offences. Nearly 75% of those were foreign nationals. The authorities also continued to wield the death penalty against the country’s Shia minority, including for political dissent. The Shia minority accounted for 42% of executions for “terrorism”-related offences in the past decade. Amnesty International calls on the Saudi authorities to establish a moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty.
