Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, setting a new record for the highest number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year, according to official data.
Analysts have largely attributed the increase to Riyadh's 'war on drugs', with 243 of those executed convicted in drug-related cases, as per figures released by the Saudi government and compiled by Agence France-Presse.
This marks the second consecutive year that Saudi Arabia has carried out its highest number of executions, after 338 people were executed in 2024. The kingdom resumed executions for drug offences in late 2022 after a three-year suspension.
Saudi Arabia is a major market for fenethylline, an illicit stimulant known as Captagon, which the UN says was Syria's largest export under former leader Bashar al-Assad. To support its 'war on drugs', authorities have increased police checkpoints and confiscated millions of pills.
Rights groups have condemned the surge, arguing it undermines Saudi efforts to present a modern image under the Vision 2030 agenda. The government maintains that the death penalty is necessary for public order and is applied only after all appeal avenues are exhausted.
