Reprieve and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights have condemned Saudi Arabia’s use of the death penalty after it was revealed they executed 345 people in 2024.
The figure towers above the previous high total of 196 in 2022, reports AFP, and is at odds with the image of reform and tolerance the Kingdom likes to peddle.
Reprieve’s head of MENA death penalty Jeed Basyouni told AFP that “this killing spree exposes the reality of Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia. How many executions would be too many, before the World Cup arrives in Saudi Arabia in 2034?”