Authorities in Saudi Arabia have executed 10 Nigerians aling several other nationals for various offences in 2024.
Reports asy the latest execution was of Yemeni national on Saturday in the southwestern region of Najran who was convicted of smuggling drugs into the kingdom. This brings the, number of foreigners executed so far in 2024 to 10, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Foreigners executed this year have included 21 from Pakistan, 20 from Yemen, 14 from Syria, 10 from Nigeria, nine from Egypt, eight from Jordan, and seven from Ethiopia. There were also three each from Sudan, India, and Afghanistan, and one each from Sri Lanka, Eritrea, and the Philippines.
The Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) said this year’s executions had already broken a record. “This is the largest number of executions of foreigners in one year. Saudi Arabia has never executed 100 foreigners in a year,” said Taha al-Hajji, the group’s legal director.
Saudi Arabia has faced persistent criticism over its use of the death penalty, which human rights groups have condemned as excessive and out of step with efforts to soften its forbidding image and welcome international tourists and investors.
The oil-rich kingdom executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world after China and Iran in 2023, according to Amnesty International. In September, Saudi Arabia carried out its highest number of executions in more than three decades, surpassing its previous highs of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995. Executions have continued at a rapid clip since then and totalled 274 for the year as of Sunday.
In 2022 the kingdom ended a three-year moratorium on the execution of drug offenders, and executions for drug-related crimes have boosted this year’s numbers.
There have been 92 such executions so far this year, 69 of them of foreigners. Diplomats and activists say that foreign defendants usually face a higher barrier to fair trials, including the right to access court documents. Foreigners “are the most vulnerable group”, said Hajji of the ESOHR.
Not only are they often “victims of major drug dealers” but also “subjected to a series of violations from the moment of their arrest until their execution,” he said.
