Saudi Arabia may put more than 100 people to death in the first six months of this year and is on pace for a record-setting year after a dramatic surge in executions in 2015, according to reports.
Saudi Arabia has executed 95 people this year, with about half of that figure resulting from the execution of 47 men on January 2, 2016, according to Amnesty International. That was the largest execution in the country in a single day since 1980, the rights group said.
While Saudi executions have spiked in 2015 and thus far in 2016, the total put to death in the Kingdom is a fraction of the number estimated for regional rival, Iran. Saudi Arabia executed 158 people last year, while Iran is estimated to have executed more than four times that number in just the first half of last year – a figure Amnesty called “staggering.”
In total, Iran executed 1084 people last year, the highest for country in 15 years and almost seven times the total executed in Saudi Arabia. Iran is estimated to execute more individuals per capita than any other country in the world, and also executed an American citizen last year.
