Saudi Arabia will execute more than 300 people in 2024, according to the AFP news agency, after four executions announced on Tuesday made the kingdom’s total executions the highest in a year in the country.
The death sentence was carried out on three people who were found to be drug smugglers and another who committed murder, according to the official news agency of Saudi Arabia, citing the Ministry of Interior.
It brings the total number of murders this year to 303, according to statistics based on state media reports.
The Gulf kingdom issued the death penalty 200 times by the end of September, according to the same official data count, which shows a rapid increase in executions in recent weeks.
Saudi Arabia is the third largest executioner after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
The previous highest number of murders in one year in the country was 196 in 2022, said the London-based human rights group, which has been recording annual figures since 1990.
Taha al-Hajji, legal director of the Berlin-based European Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), criticized the “rocket speed” of the 2024 rulings, calling them “incomprehensible and inexplicable”.
Human rights advocates have previously warned that Saudi Arabia could face more than 300 executions this year, with one person being executed almost every day.
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