At least 345 executed death sentences in Saudi Arabia-the number of executions in the host country of the 2034 World Cup reached a new high last year.
The number of executions in the host country of the 2034 Football World Cup Saudi Arabia reached a new high last year.
At least 345 people were executed in Saudi Arabia last year, “Amnesty” writes in the “death penalty report” published on Tuesday (April 8, 2025).
Contrary to the promises of the factual ruler Mohammed bin Salman to reduce the number of executions, in 2024 in Saudi Arabia, even “at least 345” was executed instead of 172 as the previous year. There were also women among them.
Procedure often “not fair”
“Amnesty” criticizes that the death penalty in Saudi Arabia was often pronounced according to procedures that would have to be classified as “not fair” from a legal point of view.
“In Iran and Saudi Arabia in particular, the death penalty is used to make all the mouths that are brave enough to say their opinion,” said Julia Duchrow, general secretary of Amnesty International in Germany. The host of the World Cup in 2034 was explicitly mentioned elsewhere: “The Saudi authorities also used the death penalty to silence politically dissenters and to punish relatives of the country’s Shiite minority because they had supported government-critical protests between 2011 and 2013.”
Amnesty criticizes general Human rights situation In Saudi Arabia
“Amnesty International” has been critical of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia for years. The rights of women are very limited, there is neither an opinion nor press freedom. The World Football Association FIFA should therefore not have assigned the World Cup to the Kingdom on the Persian Golf due to its own guidelines.
In December 2024, “Amnesty” also published a report in which the fear was expressed that, as in Qatar, many people on the World Cup construction sites would be exploited and even killed. “The FIFA knows that labor migrants are exploited and even die if there are no fundamental reforms in Saudi Arabia. And yet it has decided to continue. The organization is taking the risk of having to bear responsibility for the many violations to be expected,” said Steve Cockburn, Expert for Sport and Human Rights at Amnesty International.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) also criticized forced labor, wage theft, work in extreme heat or a lack of legal protection in December 2024. The failure to protect the workforce accordingly leads to the fact that the 2034 World Cup also “with far -reaching legal violations will be affected“, according to HRW.
“Always a violation of human rights”
Even if the majority of the global death penalties are pronounced for drug-related offenses, as is usually the case in Saudi Arabia, the death penalty “always against human rights” violates the right to life, according to Amnesty International.
In this respect, the criticism of “Amnesty” is also directed against the USA, which will organize the World Cup together with Mexico and Canada in 2026 together with Mexico and Canada. Last year, a death sentence was carried out 25 times in the United States.
Criticism also of US President Trump
US President Donald Trump, who began his second term on January 20, 2025, signed a decree a day later that death penalty should be executed again. Under his predecessor Joe Biden, a moratorium came into force at the federal level in 2021. During Trump’s first term from 2016 to 2020, 13 people were executed in the USA, more than ever under any other US president.
Trump claims the death penalty and thus protect against murderers and rapists. To this end, “Amnesty International” writes: “Trump’s dehuman statements continue to knit on the fairy tale, according to which the death penalty particularly deteriorates people to commit crimes. This is wrong. The death penalty does not prevent crimes. This is scientifically well documented.”
Number of executions in China is probably significantly higher
The number of people who are executed worldwide had reached a maximum of 1,518 since the 2015 human rights organization began to create the report. Most of the death sentences were therefore carried out in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen. Amnesty refers to documented executions – the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.
The presumably thousands of executions in China are not taken into account because there are no data on this. There is also no information for North Korea and Vietnam. The true extent in the application of the death penalty is therefore only partially recorded in the report, it is said.