Following a year in which it carried out a record number of executions, Saudi Arabia has executed six Iranians for drug trafficking, the interior ministry announced Wednesday.
The ministry stated in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency that the six were put to death near Dammam, on the Gulf coast, for “clandestinely introducing hashish” into the kingdom, though it did not say when.
According to the foreign ministry in Tehran, Iran called on the Saudi ambassador to hear a “strong protest” against the “unacceptable” breach of “the rules and norms of international law.”
Saudi Arabia executed at least 338 people in 2024, the most in decades, according to an AFP count, a significant increase from the 170 executions that were documented in 2023.
According to Amnesty International, a human rights organisation that has been keeping track of executions in the country since the 1990s, the previous highs were 192 in 1995 and 196 in 2022.
The AFP count indicated that at least 117 of those executed last year were convicted drug traffickers.
Since the kingdom lifted a ban on the death penalty for drug charges two years ago, scores of convicted drug traffickers have been put to death.
The government started a well-publicised anti-drug operation in 2023 that included several raids and arrests.
The addictive psychostimulant captagon, which was manufactured in vast amounts in Syria during the civil conflict that resulted in the toppling of long-time leader Bashar al-Assad last month, has found a significant market in Saudi Arabia.
More than 30 international and Arab human rights organisations condemned the “sharp increase” in executions of drug-related convictions in September.
Another record was set in 2024 when 129 out of 338 people executed were foreigners. Among them were seven Ethiopians, 21 Egyptians, 16 Syrians, 14 Nigerians, 13 Jordanians, 25 Yemenis, and 24 Pakistanis.
The execution of 81 individuals for “terrorist crimes” on a single day by Saudi Arabia in March 2022 incited international indignation.
Although Amnesty has not yet released its 2024 data, it claims that Saudi Arabia executed more individuals in 2023 than only China and Iran.
The Saudi government claims that the death penalty is only applied when all other options for appeal have been exhausted and that it is required to preserve public order.
After demonstrators incensed over the killing of Shiite Muslim preacher Nimr al-Nimr attacked the kingdom’s diplomatic missions in Tehran and the second city, Mashhad, in 2016, the kingdom broke off ties with Iran.
Following a rapprochement mediated by China, diplomatic relations were re-established in March 2023.
