Saudi Arabia
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 9
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 41
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Executions are carried out in public with a sword
- News items in the archive
- 1,878
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Saudi Arabia is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 9 executions in the country, against 41 the year before. The archive holds 1,878 news items on Saudi Arabia, from 1999 to today.
In Saudi Arabia the death penalty applies to murder, drug offences, terrorism and certain offences under sharia law. The usual method is beheading, in some cases carried out in public. Executions are often announced in groups by the official press agency and a significant share of them involve foreign nationals.
The system of diya, the compensation a victim's family may accept in place of an execution, leaves some sentences reversible until the last moment. The archive gathers official announcements, individual cases and the campaigns to stop them.
Latest news
- JUNE 1, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia sentenced some of the men it arrested...
Saudi Arabia sentenced some of the men it arrested in the 1996 bombing of a U
- MAY 28, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
The Saudi news agency, SPA, carried a Saudi Interior...
The Saudi news agency, SPA, carried a Saudi Interior Ministry statement saying that the Islamic Shari'ah Court had convicted Saudi national Dawud Bin-Muhammad Bin-Salih Al Mutarid al-Yami of the crime of murdering his compatriot Muhammad Bin-Husayn Bin-Al
- MAY 21, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Philippine Labour Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas said...
Philippine Labour Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas said she would ask the Saudi Arabian government to spare the lives of three overseas Filipino workers sentenced to execution in the Middle East kingdom during the six-day visit to Saudi Arabia from May 23 t
- MAY 18, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A man was beheaded for raping another man, the Saudi...
A man was beheaded for raping another man, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement quoted by AP
- MAY 13, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded an Afghan man convicted of smuggling...
Saudi Arabia beheaded an Afghan man convicted of smuggling an unspecified amount of heroin into the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported
- MAY 12, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Saudi woman for murdering her...
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Saudi woman for murdering her father and an Ethiopian man for killing a compatriot with an axe, the Saudi Press Agency reported
- MAY 10, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded four Pakistani men for bludgeoning...
Saudi Arabia beheaded four Pakistani men for bludgeoning to death a compatriot to steal his possessions, the official Saudi Press Agency reported
- MAY 8, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded two men for raping a woman after...
Saudi Arabia beheaded two men for raping a woman after grabbing her as she and her husband walked through Riyadh, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported
- MAY 3, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded a man after he was convicted...
Saudi Arabia beheaded a man after he was convicted of murder, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported
- APRIL 30, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A Saudi man who murdered his mother and four other...
A Saudi man who murdered his mother and four other people with a knife was publicly beheaded
- APRIL 30, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A human rights group criticised Saudi Arabia's "secretive"...
A human rights group criticised Saudi Arabia's "secretive" judicial system following confusion over the sentencing of seven Westerners on trial for alleged involvement in a bombing campaign in the kingdom
- APRIL 28, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man for knifing to...
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man for knifing to death a compatriot, the official Saudi Press Agency reported
- APRIL 28, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
International human rights groups and British MPs expressed...
International human rights groups and British MPs expressed outrage after two Britons accused of masterminding a bombing campaign in Saudi Arabia were secretly given lengthy jail sentences
- APRIL 27, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A Labour MSP [Member of the Scottish Parliament] expressed...
A Labour MSP [Member of the Scottish Parliament] expressed "deep concern" at reports that a Scot had been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for alleged involvement in a bombing campaign
- APRIL 27, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A Briton faces beheading in Saudi Arabia after he admitted...
A Briton faces beheading in Saudi Arabia after he admitted planting a car bomb which killed a fellow expatriate
- APRIL 27, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Britain declined to comment on a report that two Britons...
Britain declined to comment on a report that two Britons had been secretly sentenced to 18 years in jail for alleged involvement in a fatal bombing campaign in Saudi Arabia
- APRIL 26, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Canada was urgently checking an unconfirmed report...
Canada was urgently checking an unconfirmed report that a Canadian businessman in Saudi Arabia accused of being involved in a fatal bombing was sentenced to death in a secret trial, officials said
- APRIL 26, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
The Saudi lawyer of a Canadian accused of involvement...
The Saudi lawyer of a Canadian accused of involvement in a fatal bombing denied reports that his client had been sentenced to death in a secret trial in the Muslim kingdom
- APRIL 25, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia voted against the resolution 2002/77 on...
Saudi Arabia voted against the resolution 2002/77 on the death penalty at the 58th UN Commission on Human Rights
- APRIL 11, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Saudi man for shooting dead...
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Saudi man for shooting dead a soldier outside an air base, the official Saudi Press Agency reported
- APRIL 10, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
The number of state-sanctioned executions around the...
The number of state-sanctioned executions around the world doubled in 2001, mainly because of a crackdown on crime in China, Amnesty International said
- APRIL 9, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A British businessman who ran an illicit drinking club...
A British businessman who ran an illicit drinking club in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 800 lashes in a secret trial
- MARCH 31, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Hussein Ahmad al-Ramahi was publicly beheaded for armed...
Hussein Ahmad al-Ramahi was publicly beheaded for armed robbery
- MARCH 15, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Five Britons accused of bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia...
Five Britons accused of bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia have retracted their confessions
- MARCH 11, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A man was publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia for murdering...
A man was publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia for murdering a man by running over him several times with his car
- FEBRUARY 27, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia is trying seven foreigners accused of...
Saudi Arabia is trying seven foreigners accused of bomb attacks that raised fears of anti-western terror in the kingdom, the interior minister said
- FEBRUARY 11, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Thirty-five convicted drug traffickers were executed...
Thirty-five convicted drug traffickers were executed in Saudi Arabia in 2000, in most cases after swift, secret trials without lawyers or juries
- FEBRUARY 1, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Saudi man for shooting a compatriot...
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Saudi man for shooting a compatriot to death after a dispute
- FEBRUARY 1, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Three Moroccan human rights associations called for...
Three Moroccan human rights associations called for a new trial for Majda Mostefa Mahir, a Moroccan woman recently condemned to death for the killing of a Saudi prince, Farid Ben Abdallah Al-Mishari Al-Saoud
- JANUARY 30, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Prince Talal bin, half-brother of King Fahd of Saudi...
Prince Talal bin, half-brother of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, said that if the kingdom, an absolute monarchy, is to integrate itself in the modern world it needs a gradual political evolution