DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, according to an AFP tally, setting a new record for the number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year.

Analysts have largely attributed the surge in executions to Riyadh’s ongoing “war on drugs” launched in recent years — with many of those first arrested only now being executed, following legal proceedings and convictions.

Official data released by the government said 243 people were executed in drug-related cases in 2025 alone, according to AFP’s tally.

The figures from 2025 mark the second consecutive year Saudi Arabia has set a new record for executions, after authorities executed 338 people in 2024.

Duaa Dhainy, a researcher at the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, told AFP the record-breaking numbers were “proof that promises regarding human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia have no value”.

She added that the executions served as a message of “intimidation and fear for everyone”, including “migrant workers, minors and political opponents”.

The Berlin-based organisation confirmed that Saudi Arabia executed 356 people in 2025, highlighting it was the first time more foreigners were executed than Saudis in a calendar year.

Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences at the end of 2022, after suspending the use of the death penalty in narcotics cases for around three years.

The Arab world’s largest economy is also one of the biggest markets for captagon, an illicit stimulant that was Syria’s largest export under deposed leader Bashar al-Assad — according to the United Nations.

Assad was ousted from power in December 2024.

Since launching its war on drugs, the country has increased police checkpoints on highways and at border crossings, where millions of pills have been confiscated and dozens of traffickers arrested.

Foreigners are largely bearing the brunt of the campaign to date.

The Gulf kingdom has faced sustained criticism over its use of the death penalty, which rights groups have condemned as excessive and in marked contrast to the country’s efforts to present a modern image to the world.

Activists say Riyadh’s continued embrace of capital punishment undermines the image of a more open, tolerant society that is central to de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform agenda.

Saudi Arabia is spending big on tourist infrastructure and top sports events such as the 2034 football World Cup as it tries to diversify its oil-reliant economy.

Authorities in the kingdom, however, argue that the death penalty is necessary to maintain public order and is used only after all avenues for appeal have been exhausted.

Rights group Amnesty International began documenting executions in Saudi Arabia in 1990.

Figures dating from before then are largely unclear.