Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Saudi Arabia. Most executions in the country are carried out by decapitation (beheading). Saudi Arabia is the only country that still uses this method. Capital punishment is used both for people charged with lethal crimes and people charged with non-lethal crimes (including drug offenses, sexual offenses, "sorcery", and "witchcraft"). Over two-thirds of those executed are charged with non-lethal drug offenses. Also among those executed are individuals charged with non-lethal terrorism, a charge that has been used against individuals who participated in protests against the authoritarian regime in Saudi Arabia.
Death sentences are almost exclusively based on the system of judicial sentencing discretion (tazir), following the classical principle of avoiding Sharia-prescribed (hudud) penalties when possible. In response to a 1970s rise in violent crime, these sentences increased. This paralleled similar developments in the United States and mainland China in the late 20th century.
A central square in the Kingdom's capital, Riyadh, became known in the West as "Chop-Chop Square" due to public executions there.
The kingdom executed at least 158 people in 2015, at least 154 in 2016, at least 146 in 2017, 149 in 2018, 184 in 2019, 69 in 2020, 196 in 2022, 172 in 2023, 345 in 2024, and 356 in 2025.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia executed more people than in any year over the previous three decades. The largest known mass execution in the country's history was carried out on March 12 that year, when 81 people were executed, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian. In 2024, executions reached a new high of 345, almost exactly doubling the 172 executions carried out in 2023. In the first half of 2025, 180 executions took place. The Guardian reported that 2025 had more executions than last year. Analysts have largely attributed the increase in executions to Saudi Arabia's "war on drugs", with 243 executions in 2025 being for drug-related offenses alone.
Method Saudi Arabia has a criminal justice system based on Shari'ah. Execution is usually carried out by beheading with a sword, but may occasionally be performed by firing squad.
Sentences are primarily given on confession. Human Rights Watch says the majority of people are tortured to obtain confession and courts have not investigated it. As of April 2020, minors under 18, who commit crimes will no longer face execution when they turn 18, and would instead face a maximum of 10 years in a juvenile detention facility.
A 2018 report by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) asserts that the number of beheadings in the kingdom during the first quarter of 2018 rose by over 70 percent compared to the same period in 2017. 2024 was the year with the highest number of beheadings in several decades (330).
Use of public executions
Saudi Arabia performed public executions until recently. In 2022, no public executions were recorded; as of 2024, despite the increased number of executions, Deera Square – the former site of public beheadings – had become "dominated by cafes and restaurants with almost no sign of its bloody past".
Public beheadings typically took place around 9 a.m. The convicted person was walked to a courtyard near the courthouse and kneeled in front of the executioner. A police official announced the crimes committed by the person and the beheading took place. The executioner used a sword known as a sulthan to remove the condemned person's head from his or her body at the neck. After a medical examiner inspected the body and pronounced the convict dead, a police official announced the crimes committed by the beheaded convict once again and the process was complete. Professional executioners beheaded as many as 10 people in a single day.
Crucifixion of the beheaded body was sometimes ordered in cases where the person was a child molester or a rapist. Crucifixion was also used for offenses such as organized crime; for example, in 2009, the Saudi Gazette reported that "an Abha court had sentenced the leader of an armed gang to death with a three-day crucifixion (public displaying of the beheaded body) and six other gang members to beheading for their role in jewelry store robberies in Asir."
In 2003, Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, whom the BBC described as "Saudi Arabia's leading executioner", gave a rare interview to Arab News. He described his first execution in 1998: "The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled metres away... People are amazed how fast [the sword] can separate the head from the body." He also said that, before an execution, he visits the victim's family to seek forgiveness for the criminal, which can lead to the criminal's life being spared. Once an execution goes ahead, his only conversation with the prisoner is to tell him or her to recite the Muslim declaration of belief, the Shahada. "When they get to the execution area, their strength drains away. Then I read the execution order, and at a signal I cut the prisoner's head off," he said.
Capital offences
Saudi law technically allows the death penalty for a variety of crimes:
Apostasy Treason Homosexuality Espionage Murder Rape Terrorism Drug smuggling Armed robbery Blasphemy Burglary if aggravated circumstances, including recidivism Adultery (unmarried adulterers can be sentenced to 100 lashes, married ones can be sentenced to stoning.)Penalty for adultery: Sorcery or witchcraft Waging war on God
Murder Murder is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. If a murderer pays a family of the victim blood money, and the family approves of the choice, the murderer will not be executed. The criminal justice system waits until the family makes a decision on whether the family of the victim will accept blood moneyMackey, p. 270. or if the family of the victim will choose to have the murderer executed, or to completely forgive the perpetrator.
Other offences Sharia background The Saudi judiciary can impose the death penalty according to three categories of criminal offence in Sharia law:
Hudud: Fixed punishments for specific crimes. Hudud crimes which can result in the death penalty include apostasy, adultery, and sodomy although requirement of evidence is high and is usually based on confession. Punishment for adultery is stoning. No stoning has taken place in Saudi Arabia for many decades. Qisas: Eye-for-an-eye retaliatory punishments. Qisas crimes include murder. Families of someone murdered can choose between demanding the death penalty or granting clemency in return for a payment of diyya, or blood money, by the perpetrator. The amount of blood-money requested can be quite considerable: a recent report mentions a sum of $11 million demanded in exchange for clemency. Tazir: A general category, including crimes defined by national regulations, some of which can be punished by death, such as drug trafficking.
A conviction requires proof in one of three ways:
An uncoerced confession. The testimony of two male witnesses can result in conviction (except in the case of adultery, in which four are required). This excludes "hudud crimes", in which case a confession is also required. An affirmation or denial by oath can be required.
Giving an oath is taken particularly seriously in a religious society such as Saudi Arabia's, and a refusal to take an oath will be taken as an admission of guilt resulting in conviction.
Adultery In order for an individual to be convicted in a Saudi sharia law court of adultery, they must confess to the act four times in front of the court; otherwise four pious male Muslims or two pious men and two women who witnessed the actual sexual penetration must testify in front of the court. If the witnesses were spying on the defendants or intentionally watched the defendants commit adultery, their uprightness would be called into question and a conviction for adultery would not take place. According to the Islamic sharia law, the burden of proof is on the accuser; and if even one of those witnesses retracted their testimony then the accused will be acquitted and the remaining witnesses will be prosecuted for perjury per Quran 24:4.
The execution method for adultery committed by married people is stoning (see Capital offences). If the conviction was established through confession, a retraction of the confession or the defendant leaving the pit while stoning is taking place results in the penalty being stayed. If the conviction was established through the testimony of four witnesses, the witnesses must initiate the stoning, and failure to do so results in the execution being stayed. Sandra Mackey, author of The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom, stated in 1987 that in Saudi Arabia, "unlike the tribal rights of a father to put to death a daughter who has violated her chastity, death sentences under Qur'anic law [for adultery] are extremely rare."Mackey, p. 271. Mackey explained that "charges of adultery are never made lightly. Since the penalty is so severe, women are protected from unfounded accusations of sexual misconduct". During a human rights dialogue with European jurists that took place several years before 1987, a Saudi delegate acknowledged that it is difficult to have a person convicted of adultery. According to Mackey, in a 20-year period ending in 1987, one woman "is acknowledged to" have been executed by stoning for adultery.
Princess Misha'al was shot several times in the head for adultery in 1977; investigation revealed she never faced a trial and was executed extrajudicially; scholars have termed her execution as honor killing.
Witchcraft Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, who was found in possession of talismans, was executed in the southern Najran province in June 2012. A Saudi woman, Amina bin Salem Nasser, was executed for being convicted of practising sorcery and witchcraft in December 2011 in Al Jawf Region, and a Sudanese man (Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki) was executed in a car park in Medina for the same reason on 20 September 2011. In 2014, Mohammed bin Bakr al-Alawi was beheaded on 5 August for allegedly practising black magic and sorcery.
Mass executions
2016 On 2 January 2016, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 47 imprisoned civilians convicted for terrorism in 12 different provinces. Forty-three were beheaded and four were executed by firing squads. Among the 47 people killed was Shia Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr: Saudi Arabia executes top Shia cleric , BBC News (2 January 2016). The execution was the largest carried out in the kingdom since 1980. These executions were the first to be carried out in 2016, with rights groups claiming that Saudi Arabia had executed at least 157 people in the year prior. In 2015, it was said that this year holds the greatest number of executions since 1995.
2019