Saudi Arabia Executes 100 People in 2026, Majority for Drug Offences

Saudi authorities have executed seven more people, bringing the total number of executions in the kingdom this year to 100, according to official figures, with drug-related cases accounting for the majority.

Five of those executed on Tuesday were convicted of drug trafficking, raising the number of executions for drug-related offences to 65, 43 of whom were foreign nationals, according to an interior ministry tally.

On Monday, Amnesty International condemned the grim milestone, stating it reveals the authorities’ immoral and unlawful use of the death penalty.

Foreign nationals have borne the brunt of Saudi Arabia’s ruthless use of the death penalty for drug-related offences, often following grossly unfair trials, the London-based rights group said.

It is deeply alarming that at least 63 Ethiopian nationals, held in a single ward of the Khamis Mushait detention facility in southwestern Saudi Arabia, may be at risk of imminent execution solely for drug-related offences, the statement added.

Of the 100 people executed this year, 48 were Saudi nationals, 12 Ethiopian, seven Pakistani, six Sudanese, and four Yemeni and Syrian each.

In 2025, the kingdom executed 356 people, 243 of them for drug-related offences—a record figure since Amnesty began documenting executions in 1990.

Saudi Arabia reinstated the death penalty for drug-related offences at the end of 2022, after a moratorium of about three years.

The kingdom has ranked third globally in the number of executions over the past three years, behind China and Iran, according to Amnesty.

The Gulf state has faced sustained criticism over its use of the death penalty, which rights groups decry as excessive and at odds with the country’s efforts to project a modern image to the world.

However, Saudi authorities maintain that the death penalty is necessary to preserve public order and is only carried out after all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.