Saudi Arabia executed 170 death row prisoners in 2023, an increase compared to the previous year, according to a report by AFP news agency based on announcements by Saudi authorities. As of December 31, 2023, 170 death row prisoners have been executed in the Kingdom, compared to 147 in all of 2022. A record 187 executions were recorded in 2019.
The last executions took place on Sunday. They concern Saudis convicted of murder, including two in Tabouk (north), one in Riyadh and the other in Jazane (south), according to Saudi Interior Ministry press releases quoted by the official SPA agency.
Beheadings
Among the 170 people executed since the beginning of the year are 33 people “involved in terrorism cases” and two soldiers convicted of treason. In 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 147 convicts, 81 of them in a single day, sparking a wave of condemnations around the world.
Human rights defenders regularly denounce the executions, usually by beheading, but authorities deem them “consistent with Sharia (Islamic law)” and necessary to “maintain public order.”
According to human rights organizations, Saudi Arabia is, along with China and Iran, one of the three countries that execute the most people on death row in the world.