This excellent New York Times article exposes the reality of Saudi Arabia’s execution spree. More than half the 322 people executed so far this year were foreign nationals, mostly poor migrants. More than 180 were convicted of drug crimes, including almost 100 for hashish alone.
Reprieve client Issam al-Shazly is the central case study in the article: an Egyptian fisherman forced at gunpoint to carry drugs to shore, and sentenced to death in 2022. Scores of other Egyptians on death row have been executed this year.
“We hear the argument that Saudi Arabia is trying to tackle a drug problem, and that may be true, but the way they are going about it is completely wrong,” said Reprieve’s Head of MENA death penalty projects Jeed Basyouni. “They are targeting the most vulnerable — foreign nationals, trafficking victims — people who had no power or knowledge of what they were caught in.”
