DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Executions in Saudi Arabia surged last year to a record high, Amnesty International said Monday, as activists increasingly warn about the kingdom’s use of the death penalty in nonviolent drug cases.

Saudi Arabia executed 345 people last year, the highest number ever recorded by Amnesty in over three decades of reporting. In the first six months of this year alone, 180 people have been put to death, the group said, signaling that record likely will again be broken.

This year, about two-thirds of those executed were convicted on non-lethal drug charges, the activist group Reprieve said separately. Amnesty also has raised similar concerns about executions in drug cases.

Saudi Arabia has not offered any comment on why it increasingly employs the death penalty in the kingdom. Saudi officials did not respond to detailed questions from The Associated Press about the executions and why it is using the death penalty for nonviolent drug cases.

However, it conflicts with comments from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler, who in 2022 highlighted he limited its use to just homicide cases.

“Well about the death penalty, we got rid of all of it, except for one category, and this one is written in the Quran, and we cannot do anything about it, even if we wished to do something, because it is clear teaching in the Quran,” the prince told The Atlantic.

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