Saudi Arabia has set a new record for executions in a single year, with authorities confirming three additional executions on Monday, bringing the total number carried out in 2025 to 340. The figure surpasses the previous record of 338 executions recorded in 2024, marking the second consecutive year the kingdom has broken its own execution record.
According to a statement from the interior ministry published by the Saudi Press Agency, the three individuals were executed in the Mecca region after being convicted of murder. Official tallies based on government announcements show that 232 of the executions carried out this year were for drug-related offences, making up the majority of cases.
The sharp rise in executions is widely linked to Saudi Arabia’s intensified “war on drugs,” launched in 2023. Many of those now being executed were arrested in earlier phases of the crackdown and have since exhausted legal appeals. The kingdom resumed executions for drug crimes in late 2022 after a three-year suspension.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s largest markets for captagon, an illicit amphetamine that was once Syria’s top export under the former Assad government. Since escalating its anti-drug campaign, Saudi authorities have expanded highway and border checkpoints, seized millions of pills, and arrested dozens of suspected traffickers. Foreign nationals have accounted for a large share of those executed.
Human rights groups continue to criticise the kingdom’s use of capital punishment, arguing it contradicts international law and Saudi Arabia’s efforts to project a modern image under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reforms. Amnesty International ranks Saudi Arabia as the world’s third-highest executioner, behind China and Iran, for each of the past three years.
Saudi officials maintain that the death penalty is necessary to preserve public order and insist it is applied only after all legal processes and appeals have been completed.
