HRW: Saudi Arabia executes 5 Ethiopians in drug cases amid concerns over trial fairness

GENEVA, Aug.02 (YPA) – Saudi authorities executed five Ethiopian migrants on July 27 following their conviction on drug trafficking charges that did not involve homicide, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, considering that the trials failed to meet international standards of due process and fair trial guarantees.

The rights group stated that the recent executions bring the total number of Ethiopians executed in the Kingdom on drug-related charges since the beginning of 2026 to at least 17, with 79 others facing the same fate. Joey Shea, a senior Saudi Arabia researcher at HRW, stated that legal proceedings are often conducted in minutes without access to legal representation or translation services.

Citing testimonies from more than a dozen informed sources collected since April, HRW reported that the five executed individuals originated from the Tigray region on northern Ethiopia and had migrated via Yemen. They were detained for over three years in Khamis Mushait prison, where they were forced to sign documents in a language they did not understand, denied legal counsel and the right to appeal, and subjected to restrictions on religious practices.

The organization noted that similar executions were carried out against five other Ethiopian nationals on June 23.

Reaffirming its absolute opposition to the death penalty, HRW highlighted that applying capital punishment for drug offenses violates international law—which restricts the death penalty to the “most serious crimes”—and noted that non-violent drug offenses accounted for approximately 68% of all executions in the region in 2025.

YPA