Saudi Arabia’s drug-related executions violate international law — Opinion No. 71/2025 by the by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

A UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that the detention and execution of three Egyptian nationals for drug offences in Saudi Arabia violated international human rights law, citing lack of legal basis, serious fair trial violations, allegations of torture, and discriminatory treatment against foreign nationals. The experts emphasised that drug offences do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” under international law and therefore should not carry the death penalty, urging Saudi authorities to halt executions for such offences, release the remaining individual on death row, and bring national laws and practices in line with international standards.