The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia posted data this week that shows it carried out at least 356 executions in 2025, the highest number recorded in the modern era, and a significant increase over the record-breaking 338 executions in 2024.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), at least 243 of the death sentences carried out in 2025 were for drug-related cases.
Saudi Arabia unofficially halted executions for drug offenses in 2020, in a bid to regain some international goodwill after columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018 but resumed the practice with a vengeance in late 2022.
The Saudis have been executing drug dealers to combat an infusion of captagon, an amphetamine that is manufactured and sold by impoverished groups in the Middle East and purchased by oil-rich young elites. Most of the people killed for drug offenses in Saudi Arabia were foreigners from Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, and Syria.
The Saudi government knows its executions for drug offenses are controversial, but it argues that harsh measures are needed to cut off the flow of captagon. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto chief executive of Saudi Arabia, has expressed his determination to combat the societal corruption of captagon, “even if it means using brutal means and shocking international organisations – especially Western ones.”
Saudi officials insist their “brutal means” have been effective, especially since they gained an unexpected new ally in the fight against captagon last year: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who pledged that Syria would be “purified” of the drug trade in his victory speech after deposing dictator Bashar Assad.
By the time Saudi Arabia resumed executing drug dealers in 2022, Syria was the largest producer of captagon in the world, by a very wide margin. Measured by sales volume, captagon was Syria’s most important export – and critics said the Assad family was up to its necks in the drug trade.
Human rights groups have not been sympathetic to Saudi Arabia’s arguments for fighting the captagon trade with executions. Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday called the execution surge “horrifying” and called on the international community to pressure MBS into imposing another moratorium on sentences of death for non-violent drug crimes.
“Celebrities, athletes, and others seeking to cash in on Saudi whitewashing of its human rights record should reconsider based on the number of executions during 2025 to determine whether the money is worth being associated with this killing spree,” said HRW Saudi Arabia researcher Joey Shea.
In September, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) demanded Saudi Arabia halt executions for those convicted of offenses when they were under 18 years of age.
The case that prompted OHCHR to make its demand was the execution of Jalal al-Labbad on August 21. Born in 1995, Labbad was arrested for participating in protests against the Saudi government’s treatment of its Shiite Muslim minority in 2011 and 2012. He was sentenced to death in August 2022, even though he was 16 and 17 years old when his offenses were committed. His case renewed criticism that Saudi Arabia is more likely to impose harsh sentences, including the death penalty, against Shiites.
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