Omotayo Adigun
Saudi Arabia has carried out the execution of 17 individuals over the past three days, according to state media reports, marking one of the kingdom’s most intense waves of capital punishment in recent history.
On Monday, two Saudi nationals were executed for what authorities described as “terrorist crimes,” bringing the total to 17 executions since Saturday.
Over the weekend, 15 individuals—mostly foreign nationals—were executed for drug-related offenses. The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) confirmed the series of executions but provided limited details on the individual cases.
This surge in executions is the fastest since March 2022, when Saudi Arabia drew global condemnation for executing 81 people in a single day, most of whom were convicted of terrorism-related offenses. At the time, international human rights organizations expressed grave concerns over the transparency and fairness of the kingdom’s legal process, particularly in death penalty cases.
The recent string of executions also echoes a similar mass execution in 2016, when 47 people were put to death in a single day—the largest mass execution in the country since 1980.
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Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s leading users of the death penalty, maintains strict laws under its interpretation of Sharia law, including capital punishment for crimes such as murder, terrorism, armed robbery, and drug trafficking.
Despite ongoing reforms in various sectors under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative, the country continues to face criticism over its human rights record, particularly the application of the death penalty, often carried out by beheading.
International observers are closely watching to see whether this accelerated rate of executions signals a shift in Saudi Arabia’s judicial enforcement or reflects a broader crackdown on criminal and political offenses.