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Saudi Arabia has executed six Iranian nationals for drug trafficking, the Ministry of Interior announced on Wednesday. This comes amid a year that witnessed an unprecedented surge in executions, as reflected in an AFP tally of official government reports. The kingdom’s firm stance on drug-related offenses continues to draw attention globally.
The Saudi Ministry of Interior announced through the state-run SPA news agency that six people had been executed in Dammam, located along the Gulf coast, after being convicted of secretly smuggling hashish into the country. The announcement, while emphasizing the gravity of the crime, notably refrained from disclosing the precise date of the executions.
The Iranian foreign ministry called in the Saudi ambassador for a formal reprimand, delivering what it described as a “strong protest” against what it deemed an “unacceptable breach” of “international law and customary norms.” This diplomatic escalation marks another chapter in the strained relations between Tehran and Riyadh.
With at least 338 executions carried out in 2024, Saudi Arabia reached its highest tally in decades, sharply surpassing the 170 executions documented in 2023, according to AFP’s calculations. Amnesty International, a rights organization that has tracked capital punishment in the kingdom since the 1990s, highlighted that this figure breaks previous records of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995, underscoring a troubling trend.
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Among the 338 executions carried out in Saudi Arabia last year, at least 117 involved individuals convicted of drug trafficking, as reported by AFP. The increase in drug-related executions follows the kingdom’s controversial decision to end a two-year moratorium on the death penalty for drug crimes, a move that has sparked ongoing debate.
In 2023, the authorities launched a highly publicised anti-drugs campaign involving a series of raids and arrests. Saudi Arabia has become a major market for the addictive psychostimulant captagon, which was produced in huge quantities in Syria during the civil war which culminated in the overthrow of longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad last month.
In September, more than 30 Arab and international human rights groups denounced the “sharp increase” in executions of people convicted on drug charges.
Foreigners made up 129 of the 338 people executed in 2024, another record. They included 25 Yemenis, 24 Pakistanis, 17 Egyptians, 16 Syrians, 14 Nigerians, 13 Jordanians and seven Ethiopians.
In March 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in a single day for “terrorist crimes”, sparking international outrage. Only China and Iran executed more people than Saudi Arabia in 2023, according to Amnesty, which has yet to publish its 2024 figures.
The Saudi authorities say the death penalty is necessary to maintain public order and is only used after all avenues for appeal have been exhausted.
The kingdom severed relations with Iran in 2016 after its diplomatic missions in Tehran and second city Mashhad were attacked by protesters angered by the execution of Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Diplomatic ties were restored in March 2023, after a rapprochement brokered by China.
