Saudi Arabia yesterday reported a sharp drop in executions in 2020, as the kingdom seeks to blunt international criticism of its human rights record. The Gulf state, an absolute monarchy, has long faced criticism for one of the world's highest rates of executions and what human rights campaigners call an opaque judicial system. The Saudi government's Human Rights Commission (HRC) said it documented 27 executions in 2020, a decrease of 85 percent over the previous year due in part to a moratorium on the death penalty for drug-related offences.

"The Commission welcomes this news as a sign that the kingdom and its justice system are focusing more on rehabilitation and prevention than solely on punishment," HRC president Awwad Alawwad said in a statement.