Human rights groups decry Saudi drug executions

Human rights groups on Thursday condemned a sharp increase in the use of the death sentence in Saudi Arabia for drug offenses after 42 people were executed for such crimes this year.

The rights groups, many of them Saudi and Egyptian, said they were "gravely fearful for the lives of hundreds of prisoners threatened with imminent execution" on the charges.

"These men are living in a state of terror since the number of executions for such offenses has spiked in the past two months," said the statement signed by 31 organizations, including the London-based Saudi rights group ALQST and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. 

Since May, Saudi Arabia has executed 42 people on drug-related charges, compared to just two in 2023, according to a tally compiled by AFP based on official data.

"There are no official figures for the number of people sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, but the indications are that there are hundreds of people of various nationalities in Saudi prisons who have been convicted in drugs-related cases," the rights organizations said. 

A total of 170 people were executed last year in Saudi Arabia, which carried out the third-highest number of executions in the world in 2023 after China and Iran. 

This year already, 180 executions have been recorded. 

Saudi Arabia is a major market for the addictive amphetamine captagon, which floods Lebanon and war-torn Syria.

Last year, authorities launched a high-profile anti-drugs campaign with a series of raids and arrests of drug traffickers, while the kingdom lifted a moratorium on the death penalty for the crime two years ago.

Saudi authorities have not responded to questions on the motivation for resuming executions for drug-related cases.  

Riyadh has previously said that the death penalty is necessary to "maintain public order" and sentences are only carried out if "the defendants have exhausted all levels of litigation."

But in their Thursday statement, the NGOs said there was a failure by authorities to grant defendants "their right to defend themselves adequately; failure to appoint a lawyer for them; and failure to address their representations in court seriously, in addition to their being tortured and mistreated."

They called on Saudi Arabia to "immediately restore the moratorium promised previously on executions for drug offenses, and work to amend its laws to bring them into line with its obligations under international law."