Saudi Arabia has executed eight people in a single day, state media mentioned, amid a surge in using the demise penalty within the Gulf monarchy significantly over drug-related convictions.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that 4 Somalis and three Ethiopians had been executed on Saturday (August 2, 2025) within the southern area of Najran “for smuggling hashish into the kingdom”.
“One Saudi man was executed for the murder of his mother,” SPA mentioned.
Since the start of 2025, Saudi Arabia has executed 230 people, in accordance to an AFP tally of official studies. Most of these executions – 154 people – had been on drug-related charges. The tempo of executions places the dominion on monitor to surpass final 12 months’s file of 338 cases of capital punishment.
Analysts hyperlink the spike to the dominion’s “war on drugs” launched in 2023, with lots of these first arrested solely now being executed following their authorized proceedings and convictions.
Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences on the finish of 2022, after suspending using the demise penalty in narcotics circumstances for round three years. It executed 19 people in 2022, two in 2023, and 117 in 2024 for narcotics-related crimes, in accordance to the AFP tally.
Activists say the dominion’s continued embrace of capital punishment undermines the picture of a extra open, tolerant society that’s central to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform agenda.
Saudi authorities say the demise penalty is critical to preserve public order and is barely used in spite of everything avenues for enchantment have been exhausted.
