Bad news! If this is not fake news, then it is very concerning!
Unfortunately, neither BBC nor Google provide any more corroboration for this story. Only Bing provided some (see e.g. second article below)
"Saudi Arabia has surpassed its record for the number of executions carried out annually for a second year in a row.
At least 347 people have now been put to death this year, up from a total of 345 in 2024, according to the UK-based campaign group Reprieve, which tracks executions in Saudi Arabia and has clients on death row. ...
The latest prisoners to be executed were two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug-related offences. ...
Five were women. ...
But, according to Reprieve, most - around two thirds - were convicted of non-lethal drug-related offences ..."
"The toll marks the second-straight year Saudi Arabia has broken its own record since rights groups first began documenting the number of executions in the 1990s.
It executed 338 people in 2024.
A statement by the interior ministry carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said three individuals were executed in the Mecca region for murder convictions.
Since the start of 2025, Saudi Arabia has executed 232 people in drug-related cases, constituting the majority of the 340 executions carried out so far, according to AFP’s tally, based on ministry and SPA announcements.
Analysts largely link the surge in executions to the kingdom’s ongoing “war on drugs” launched in 2023, with many of those first arrested only now being executed, following legal proceedings and convictions.
Saudi Arabia resumed executions for drug offences at the end of 2022, after suspending the use of the death penalty in narcotics cases for around three years.
The Arab world’s largest economy is also one of the biggest markets for captagon, an illicit stimulant that was Syria’s largest export under Bashar al-Assad -- according to the United Nations. ..."
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