By Straightnews
Saudi Arabia has carried out its highest number of executions in over three decades after three executions announced Saturday took the 2024 figure to 198, according to an AFP tally.
The Gulf monarchy executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world after China and Iran in 2023, according to Amnesty International.
This surpassed its previous highs of 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995, said the London-based human rights group, which began recording the annual data in 1990.
Earlier Saturday, the official Saudi Press Agency confirmed that the 198th execution this year had been carried out, though the real number may be higher given the news agency has previously under-reported the true number of executions in the country.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 196 people – the highest annual number of executions that Amnesty had recorded in the country in the last 30 years.
In March 2022, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salma said that the country had “got rid of” the death penalty except for cases where it is mandated under Sharia.
Yet, in November 2022, the authorities carried the first executions for drug-related offences in nearly three years, reversing a moratorium on executions for such offences which was announced by the Saudi Human Rights Commission in 2021.
Earlier this year, Amnesty analysed the country’s draft penal code which codifies the death penalty as a punishment and continues to enable judges to use their discretion to impose death sentences for murder, rape, blasphemy and apostasy.
