NGOs voice fears for dozens of Egyptian prisoners, and hundreds of others, facing execution for drugs-related offenses in Saudi Arabia

We, the undersigned organisations, are gravely fearful for the lives of hundreds of prisoners threatened with imminent execution in Saudi Arabia on drugs-related charges, including 33 Egyptians on a single wing of Tabuk Prison. These men are living in a state of terror, since the number of executions for such offenses has spiked in the past two months. Eight men have already been executed for drugs-related offenses in Tabuk this year, and 42 in the country as a whole, including three Egyptians.

Although there is no transparency in the Saudi authorities’ handling of executions, independent monitoring of some cases has confirmed a pattern of abuses suffered by several of the condemned men in the course of their arrest and trial. These include the lack of any role for the Egyptian consulate or embassy; defendants not being granted their right to defend themselves adequately; failure to appoint a lawyer for them; and failure to address their representations in court seriously, in addition to their being tortured and mistreated while in detention.

According to statements published by the Ministry of Interior, the individuals executed on drugs charges in 2024 so far have been of the following nationalities: Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, Pakistani, Afghan, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Yemeni and Nigerian.

There are no official figures for the number of people sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, but the indications are that there are hundreds of people of various nationalities in Saudi prisons who have been convicted in drugs-related cases. However, the absence of transparency in the official handling of these cases, the lack of justice, lack of confidence in the judicial system, and fear of reprisals should they speak out in public, make it impossible for those convicted to express what they are suffering.

The undersigned organisations point out that the bloodthirsty resumption of executions for drugs-related offenses follows a period of inconsistency in the official line on this issue. Saudi Arabia first suspended this category of executions from January 2020 until November 2022 without making any official announcement. In January 2021, the head of the official Saudi Human Rights Commission stated that the moratorium was to give those sentenced for non-violent crimes another chance. In March 2022, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that the death penalty was now restricted to the crime of murder only.

Yet in November 2022 Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offenses without giving any reason or justification, executing 20 people on drugs-related charges in a single month. And despite a hiatus between August 2023 and May 2024, the kingdom has once again resumed carrying out the death penalty in this type of case.

The undersigned organisations note that the first eight months of 2024 saw a 72% rise in the number of executions overall compared with the same period in 2023, with a total of 167 by the end of August this year.

We consider the rush of executions in recent months, and the state of terror in which those convicted on drugs charges are living, including dozens of Egyptians, reflects not only the untrustworthiness of official promises but also a blatant violation of international law, which bans the death penalty, where it exists, for any crimes but the most serious, and even then within strict limits.

The organisations believe that Saudi Arabia must immediately restore the moratorium promised previously on executions for drug offenses, and work to amend its laws so as to bring them into line with its obligations under international law. We maintain that responsibility for this legal uncertainty and psychological torture lies with the Saudi authorities, along with the governments of those states, including Egypt, whose nationals are being executed.

1. ACAT France

2. ACAT Ghana

3. ALQST For Human Rights

4. Association For Freedom of Thought and Expression

5. Association Justice et Misericorde (liban)

6. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

7. Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia

8. Centre d'Actions pour le Développement

9. Coalition Tunisienne Contre la Peine de Mort

10. Egypt Wide For Human Rights

11. Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms

12. Egyptian Front For Human Rights

13. Egyptian Human Rights Forum

14. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

15. Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM)

16. European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR)

17. Forum marocain pour la vérité et la justice

18. Harm Reduction International 

19. Law and Democracy Support Foundation

20. Middle East Democracy Center

21. Organisation Contre la Torture en Tunisie

22. Refugees Platform in Egypt

23. Rescue alternatives Liberia

24. Sinai Foundation for Human Rights

25. The Advocates for Human Rights

26. The German Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (GCADP)

27. The Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU)

28. Tunisian Coalition to End the Death Penalty 

29. Tunisian Organisation Against Torture in Tunisia

30. Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) 

31. World Organisation Against Torture