New York Times – The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has soared as officials wage what they are calling a far-reaching “war on drugs,” deploying the death penalty against smugglers who ferry hashish and amphetamine pills into the kingdom.
The Saudi government has disclosed at least 320 executions so far this year. That number has risen sharply over the past three years, despite past pledges by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to curb the practice.
Two-thirds of executions this year have been related to drug offenses, according to Reprieve, a human rights group based in London.
Saudi officials have argued that drug smugglers deserve harsh punishment because the crime is akin to a violent attack on their conservative Islamic society.
However, human rights activists who track capital punishment cases in the kingdom say that low-income foreigners, from countries including Egypt, Ethiopia and Somalia, are disproportionately represented on death row.
In court documents reviewed by The New York Times, and interviews with relatives, some of those facing the death penalty appear to be low-level smugglers who say they were coerced into carrying drugs.
“They are the weakest link in the drug trade,” said Taha al-Hajji, a Saudi lawyer and human rights activist who lives in exile.
Mr. al-Hajji said that many of the defendants sentenced to death for drug offenses are poor foreign citizens, like drivers and laborers. It is unclear if the Saudi government has also arrested and executed major traffickers.
The case of Issam Shazley, an Egyptian fisherman sentenced to death in 2022, exemplifies the inequities of the crackdown, human rights activists say.
Mr. Shazley, then 24, was arrested by Saudi border guards in 2022 while floating in the narrow channel of water between Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula …
