Human Rights Documentation: 40% of Saudi Arabia’s political executions target Qatif 

A human rights documentation revealed that 40% of the executions carried out by the Saudi authorities on political grounds are in the city of Qatif, described as a “mirror of repression” in the kingdom.

The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights confirmed that it had documented 229 executions carried out by Saudi Arabia from the beginning of January 2016 until the end of February 2024, through specialized court rulings and mass executions, based on available information.

An analysis of the data showed that 93 executions, accounting for 40% of the total, targeted individuals from Qatif, in relation to the events witnessed in the province.

It is worth noting that the population of Saudi Arabia as of the end of 2023 was 32 million and 175 thousand, with the population of Qatif being approximately 552 thousand, representing a proportion of around 1.7%.

Human rights organizations continue to monitor repressive operations in Qatif and call for their cessation and the accountability of those responsible, within the framework of commitment to human rights and international law.

Since 2016, Saudi authorities have been implementing death sentences issued by the specialized criminal court officially in cases related to terrorism, randomly including cases related to expression of opinion and participation in protests, criminalizing them as terrorist acts.