Rights Groups Say Executions in Saudi Arabia Nearly Doubled Under King Salman, MBS

Executions in Saudi Arabia have nearly doubled under the rule of King Salman and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, the de facto ruler of the country, according to a report by two rights groups. Reprieve and the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) reported that executions rose from an average of 70.8 executions a year from 2010 to 2014, to 129.5 a year since King Salman took power in 2015. In 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 147 people, including foreign nationals, marking more executions than the previous two years combined, according to the report. “The cases that ESOHR was able to track confirmed that detainees have been deprived of their basic rights, including the right to self-defense and to communicate with the outside world. Additionally, judgment documents showed detainees’ complaints before judges, which alleged they were subjected to torture and ill-treatment and that confessions were extracted from them under torture. No serious investigation or accountability concerning torture was monitored. Rather, judges relied on coerced confessions in issuing death sentences,” according to the organization. MBS said in an interview with The Atlantic magazine on March 3, 2022 that Saudi Arabia had ended the death penalty in most cases, except for convicted murderers and other select categories of offenders, though the numbers indicate that this is not the case. Less than two weeks later, on March 12, 81 people were executed on the same day, according to the report. It is not known how many people in Saudi Arabia are currently facing the death penalty.