Saudi Arabia executed five Ethiopian migrants this week over non-lethal drug charges after trials that reportedly lasted only minutes without a lawyer or translator, Human Rights Watch says. The case adds to mounting evidence of due-process failures inside a justice system that will govern foreign nationals, including football fans and workers, throughout Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the 2034 World Cup.
Saudi Arabia executed five Ethiopian migrants on 27 July 2026 over charges of possessing hashish, a non-lethal drug offence, following trials that allegedly did not follow due process, Human Rights Watch said in a statement this week. The rights organisation said at least 79 other Ethiopians remain at imminent risk of execution on similar charges, and that Saudi Arabia has executed at least 17 Ethiopian nationals on drug-related charges since the start of 2026 alone. The case lands as Saudi Arabia continues preparations to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034, a tournament that will require the kingdom’s justice system to handle the legal affairs of millions of visiting fans, players and foreign workers.
Five Ethiopians Executed After Trials Lasting Minutes
Human Rights Watch said the five men were charged with possessing hashish, a type of cannabis, and were executed following hearings that sometimes lasted only a few minutes, without legal representation or a translator present. Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Saudi authorities are executing marginalised Ethiopian migrants after court hearings that barely function as trials at all. The Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry has previously justified similar sentences as necessary to deter drug smuggling networks and protect citizens and residents, a justification human rights groups reject given that international law generally reserves capital punishment for the most serious crimes, a category that does not typically include non-lethal drug offences.
Dozens More Foreign Nationals Face Imminent Execution
Human Rights Watch said at least 79 more Ethiopians remain at imminent risk of execution on similar drug-related charges, and cited the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, which said at least 116 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia so far in 2026. A separate joint statement issued in June 2025 by 31 civil society and human rights organisations, reported by AllAfrica, said at least 37 Ethiopian men were then facing the death penalty for drug-related offences, and described what they called a dramatic surge in executions of foreign nationals, citing Saudi Press Agency figures showing 98 people executed for drug offences in 2025 alone.
A Mother’s Wait For News Of Her Son
The human toll behind the statistics has been documented directly by families of those executed. The Associated Press reported that Tsehay Wolay, whose son Kidane Angesom was executed by Saudi authorities on 21 April 2026, said she learned of his death through his cellmate rather than through any formal notification. She described the loss in blunt terms in an interview, saying simply that her son had been murdered. Many Ethiopians travel to Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, in search of work, often through informal or irregular migration routes that leave them with limited consular protection if they are detained.
Saudi Arabia Among The World’s Top Executioners
The Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners, ranking behind only China and Iran, and is one of several Middle Eastern states, alongside Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, that impose the death penalty for drug-related offences. Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry said last week that it remained closely engaged with Saudi authorities on matters affecting Ethiopian nationals and was looking into individuals facing legal proceedings, though it did not specify whether that engagement extended to those already sentenced to death for drug offences. ABC News reported there was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities in response to the Human Rights Watch findings.
Foreign Nationals Bear The Brunt Of Death Sentences
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly argued that Saudi courts often fail to provide foreign defendants with translators, legal counsel or adequate consular access, a pattern rights groups describe as structural rather than incidental. The organisation has called on Saudi authorities to commute existing death sentences, reinstate a moratorium on executions for drug offences, and ensure that any retrials meet basic fair-trial standards.
Why This Matters For Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup
Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the 2034 World Cup will require the kingdom to manage the legal affairs of an unprecedented number of foreign nationals over an extended period, including hundreds of thousands of travelling fans, thousands of foreign journalists and broadcasters, and the migrant workforce already building tournament infrastructure. A justice system that Human Rights Watch says is currently executing foreign nationals after trials lasting minutes, without translators or legal representation, raises direct and unavoidable questions about the legal protections that will be available to non-Saudi nationals present in the kingdom during the tournament’s build-up and beyond.
Due Process Concerns For Foreign Nationals
The pattern documented in the Ethiopian cases, defendants facing serious charges without adequate translation or legal counsel, is not a hypothetical risk confined to migrant labourers. It speaks to the underlying due-process standards of the courts that would handle any legal matter involving a foreign national during the World Cup, from minor infractions to more serious allegations. FIFA’s own human rights policy commits the organisation to assessing host nations against international human rights standards, a commitment that sits uneasily alongside a documented pattern of executions carried out, according to Human Rights Watch, without the basic procedural safeguards international law generally requires.
A Legal System Under International Scrutiny
The scale of the issue is not new, but it appears to be accelerating. The rise from 98 drug-related executions across all foreign nationals in 2025 to at least 116 total executions already recorded by late July 2026 suggests the practice is continuing largely unabated, even as international scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record intensifies in the run-up to 2034. For FIFA, national federations and civil society groups already questioning the transparency of the Saudi hosting process, this case adds a concrete, ongoing pattern of due-process failures to a list of concerns that has so far focused mainly on labour conditions, press freedom and the male guardianship system.
Civil Society Groups Have Repeatedly Sounded The Alarm
Human Rights Watch’s latest statement follows years of similar warnings from a broad coalition of civil society organisations. The June 2025 joint statement signed by 31 groups described a dramatic surge in executions of foreign nationals for non-lethal drug offences and said its signatories were gravely fearful for the lives of dozens of detainees, particularly Ethiopian, Somali and Egyptian nationals. That the same pattern continues more than a year later, with a fresh round of executions and dozens more people reportedly at imminent risk, suggests that international appeals to date have had limited practical effect on Saudi policy.
Broader Debate Over Accountability And Ethical Hosting
Critics of Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the 2034 World Cup have long argued that the tournament risks providing international legitimacy to a state whose human rights record, including its use of capital punishment, remains under sustained international criticism. A documented pattern of executing foreign migrants after trials lasting only minutes, continuing in the same period FIFA and Saudi organisers are advancing tournament preparations, sharpens rather than resolves that debate. Neither FIFA nor the Saudi government has commented publicly on how the kingdom’s use of capital punishment for foreign nationals relates to its obligations as a World Cup host. For fans, journalists and workers who will eventually travel to Saudi Arabia in connection with the tournament, that silence leaves open a question with direct bearing on their own legal protections while in the country.