Saudi Arabia’s escalating use of the death penalty has reached horrifying levels in 2024, with at least 309 individuals executed as of 8 December, the highest known figure in Saudi history. This grim milestone illustrates the Saudi authorities’ callous disregard for the right to life, and contradicts their own pledges to limit use of the death penalty.
Of the 309 individuals executed so far in 2024, according to data from the official Saudi Press Agency, 189 (61%) were Saudi nationals. The 120 foreign nationals executed were from 14 Asian and African countries.
106 individuals have been executed for drug-related crimes, 81 of whom were foreign nationals. This marks a sharp rise from 2023, which saw just two drug-related executions, and confirms the reversal of a short-lived moratorium on executions for such offences that lasted from January 2021 until November 2022 but was never consolidated in an official change of policy. This regressive trend raises serious concerns for the lives of hundreds of prisoners sentenced to death for drug-related offences. Such executions are in clear violation of international human rights law, which prohibits use of the death penalty for crimes that do not meet the threshold of the “most serious”.
46 individuals were executed for “terrorism-related” offences, which can include a wide range of non-lethal acts such as taking part in protests. The implausible claim made by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that Abdulmajeed Al Nimr, a Shi’a man executed on 17 August, had joined a terrorist cell affiliated to Al-Qaeda – a charge that did not appear anywhere in the court documents relating to his trial and sentencing – represents a flagrant example of the Saudi authorities’ determination to brand legitimate dissent and protest a form of terrorism.
Saudi Arabia has for years been among the countries carrying out the highest number of executions in the world. Despite a pledge in 2018 from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to reduce use of the death penalty, the rate of executions has continued to soar…
I would be more conserned about stating the relationship to the person executed, as that can be linked to you direktly, to be honest.
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For your own safety, please don’t go into more detail (and maybe remove the comment above). You’ve provided more than enough information for a determined adversary to identify you
Thank you for caring about my safety. And I should, as you said, remove some information on the above comments.
Thanks c:
I get that posting online can be an outlet when it seems like nothing else can be done, but your safety should always come first. And by design, ActivityPub is very bad about privacy, so it’s doubly important to not share anything that can be used to identify you on the same account as something that can get you in trouble. Stay safe!