As documented by
Egyptian and international human rights organisations have expressed their grave concerns for the lives of hundreds of prisoners threatened with execution in Saudi Arabia on drug-related charges, including 33 Egyptians in Tabuk Prison. There has been a sharp rise in the number of death sentences carried out since the beginning of 2024, accompanied by disturbing information from inside the prisons.
According to the information available to the organisations, a sense of anxiety and fear has prevailed in Tabuk Prison among those sentenced to death on drug-related charges, most of whom are Egyptian.
The organisations conveyed in a statement issued on Thursday evening: “Eight men have already been executed for drug-related offences in Tabuk this year, and 42 in the country as a whole, including three Egyptians.”
The statement also noted: “Although there is no transparency in the Saudi authorities’ handling of executions, independent monitoring of some cases has confirmed a pattern of abuses suffered by several of the condemned men over the course of their arrest and trial. These include the lack of any role for the Egyptian consulate or embassy, defendants not being granted their right to defend themselves adequately, failure to appoint a lawyer for them, and failure to address their representations in court seriously, in addition to their being tortured and mistreated while in detention.”
“According to statements published by the Ministry of Interior, the individuals executed on drugs charges in 2024 so far have been of the following nationalities: Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, Pakistani, Afghan, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Yemeni and Nigerian,” it added.
The organisations noted: “There are no official figures for the number of people sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, but the indications are that there are hundreds of people of various nationalities in Saudi prisons who have been convicted in drugs-related cases. However, the absence of transparency in the official handling of these cases, the lack of justice, the lack of confidence in the judicial system, and the fear of reprisals should they speak out in public make it impossible for those convicted to express their suffering.”
