Saudi Arabia executes two men convicted of ‘terrorist’ offences

Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed two men convicted of "terrorist" offences, authorities said, with a rights group saying one was a minor at the time of the alleged crime.

Fadel al-Safwani and Jawad Qureiris were found guilty of a range of offences that included firing on security personnel and joining a foreign terrorist organisation, an interior ministry statement said.

The pair, both Saudi nationals, were put to death in Eastern Province after an appeal at the country's Supreme Court failed.

London-based rights group Reprieve said Qureiris was arrested in December 2020 on charges related to participation in protests and organising on social media.

He would have been 14 at the time of the demonstrations, the NGO said.

Reprieve also said Qureiris was tortured into giving a false confession.

It said the sentence was part of a "vendetta" against his family by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

His eldest brother was killed by Saudi security forces in 2011 protests and two other brothers have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, Reprieve said.

Since August 2025, Saudi Arabia has executed five men who were children at the time of their alleged crimes, the NGO added.

They were all from Shia families in Eastern Province and had been charged with offences related to protests during and after the Arab Spring of 2011, the group said.

Oil-rich Eastern Province is home to most of Saudi Arabia's Shia minority in the predominantly Sunni kingdom.

Last month, Saudi Arabia said it had executed five other men in the province on terrorism-related charges.

Human Rights Watch said one of those was convicted of crimes he committed when he was 14.

"In Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia, the penalty for dissent is death -- and we've seen very clearly in the last two years that this applies to children, too," said Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve's head of MENA Death Penalty Projects.

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Since January, Saudi Arabia has executed 17 people for "terrorism", mainly in the east of the country, compared with 40 throughout 2025.

It has executed 211 people in total this year, including 100 Saudis and 126 convicted of drug trafficking, 90 of whom were foreigners, according to an AFP tally.

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia was the world's third-most prolific executioner between 2022 and 2025, behind China and Iran.

The kingdom considers the death penalty necessary to maintain public order and insists it applies it only after all appeals have been exhausted.