Saudi Arabia registered a record number of executions in 2025, setting a new bar for the second year in a row.
At least 347 people have been executed in the kingdom so far this year, including government critics and at least one journalist, the BBC reported.
While Saudi Arabia has liberalized broad sectors of its economy in recent years, including greater participation of women in the labor force and a recent easing of a ban on alcohol sales, Riyadh has also tightened its restrictions on dissent.
Its freedom of expression index remains among the lowest in the world, while due process violations for many of those detained remain “rampant,” Human Rights Watch argued earlier this year.
