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  "path": "/partner/saudi-arabia-executes-seven-people-in-a-day",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-12T14:43:58.000Z",
  "site": "https://nukta.com",
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nSaudi authorities executed seven people who had been convicted of drug trafficking in a single day, state media said Sunday.\n\nThe _Saudi Press Agency_ said five Saudis and two Jordanians were found guilty of trafficking amphetamine pills into the kingdom.\n\n\"The death penalty was carried out as a discretionary punishment against the perpetrators,\" the agency reported, adding that the executions took place on Sunday in the Riyadh region.\n\nSince the beginning of 2026, Riyadh has executed 38 people in drug-related cases, the majority of the 61 executions carried out, according to an AFP tally based on official data.\n\nForeign nationals make up the majority of those executed this year, totalling 33 people.\n\nIn 2025, executions in the kingdom reached a record level for the second consecutive year, with authorities executing 356 people, including 243 in drug-related cases.\n\nThe number of executions in 2025 marked the highest in a single year since Amnesty International began documenting death penalty cases in the Gulf kingdom in 1990.\n\nThe previous record, 338, was recorded in 2024.\n\nSaudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences at the end of 2022, after suspending the use of the death penalty in narcotics cases for around three years.\n\nThe Arab world's largest economy is also one of the biggest markets for captagon, an illicit stimulant that was Syria's largest export under deposed leader Bashar al-Assad -- according to the United Nations.\n\nThe Gulf kingdom has faced sustained criticism over its use of the death penalty, which rights groups have condemned as excessive and in marked contrast to the country's efforts to present a modern image to the world.\n\nActivists say Riyadh's continued embrace of capital punishment undermines the image of a more open, tolerant society that is central to de-facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's social and economic reform agenda.",
  "title": "Saudi Arabia executes seven people in a day"
}