In 2022, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman put forward a plan to make Saudi Arabia a new open state. Salman, popularly known as 'MBS', had claimed that the death penalty has been abolished except in cases of murder under the scheme.

But the number of executions this year shows that the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia is just as terrible. Saudi Arabia has executed 330 people this year. This number is the largest since decades.

According to Reuters, the current number of public executions is based on the data collected by the human rights organization Reprieve. This data has been verified by the news agency Reuters.

Saudi Arabia executed 172 people last year. Compared to the year 2022, the number is less. In 2022, 196 people were sentenced to death. But this year's figures have gone up a lot. MBS, who became the crown prince on June 21, 2017, under the social modernization policy, granted rights to women to watch games in stadiums, give driver's licenses, go to movie theaters, watch musical programs, and travel abroad without parents.

Some improvements have been made under the leadership of MBS in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the countries with the most lenient laws for women in the world. However, Saudi conservative social organizations have been opposing such changes. They said that the morals of Saudi citizens will be corrupted due to such decisions.

MBS has launched the 'Vision 2030' plan for political, economic, educational and cultural transformation in Saudi Arabia. Under the plan, Saudi Arabia is spending billions of US dollars to change its identity as a country with strict religious restrictions and human rights violations. Lately, Saudi wants to transform itself into tourism and entertainment sector.

Similarly, under MBS's 'Vision 2030' plan, the 2034 World Cup is being organized under the goal of making Saudi Arabia a global investment center. Saudi Arabia has taken the World Cup to be held after 10 years as an ambitious project. Saudi Arabia is building 11 stadiums for the World Cup. Similarly, the Saudi government also aims to build modern infrastructure such as airports, roads, trains, and hotels. But Saudi Arabia is also very controversial in the matter of labor exploitation of foreign workers.

International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have said that the Saudi government has not stopped the exploitation of migrant workers and has not provided compensation. The Saudi government has not set a minimum wage for migrant workers. The minimum salary specified at the time of hiring workers and the salary received in the account are different. The Saudi government has also been criticized because the employer does not provide proper salary and service facilities and because of the obligation to bear all the costs of going to Saudi for work.

Saudi Arabia has been denying allegations of human rights violations. Saudi authorities say that such measures are necessary for national security. Saudi Arabia has executed more than 150 people for non-lethal crimes this year. Rights groups say this is against international law. Those executions were mainly related to the smuggling of the amphetamine-like drug Captagon from Syria under the leadership of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Such executions included people charged with non-lethal terrorism. Rightist groups say that such a case is especially used against those who participate in anti-government demonstrations. This year, a total of more than 100 foreign nationals from the Middle East, Africa and Asia are included. But the Saudi government's communications office did not provide further details, according to Reuters.

MBS has been targeting his opponents since taking power in 2017 by 'coup' at the royal palace. MBS has been accused of murdering Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Khashoggi was killed in the Turkish consulate in Istanbul. After that incident, Saudi Arabia and its ruler MBS had to face strong condemnation from the international community.

After Khashoggi's death, Western governments ignored Saudi Arabia and its rulers for a long time. US President Joe Biden said during the 2020 presidential election campaign that Saudi Arabia would be isolated from the international community. But in 2022, he visited Saudi Arabia.

America had said that Saudi Crown Prince MBS had instructed to kill Khashoggi. In a report of the American intelligence agency "CIA", it was mentioned that MBS gave permission to capture or kill the exiled journalist Khashoggi. "Our assessment is that Crown Prince Salman authorized the Intanbul operation, the purpose of which was to capture or kill journalist Khashoggi," the report said.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the CIA's claim and said that the report was "brought to be insulting and wrong in the Khashoggi murder case". This report is fake. "We have already made it clear that Khashoggi's murder is a serious crime committed in violation of Saudi law," the ministry said in a statement.

Khashoggi, who is considered a staunch critic of the Saudi monarchy, was killed on October 20, 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. He went to the embassy to get the necessary documents to marry his Turkish girlfriend, Hatiz Cengiz. CCTV footage of him entering the embassy was seen, but no exit was seen.

It was said that Khashoggi reached Khashoggi after the then Saudi Ambassador to America, Prince Khalid bin Salman, obtained documents at the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul and provided security to go there. But Khalid said that he had no contact with Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia says that Khashoggi was killed by an evil group.

Crown Prince MBS said in 2019 that he would take responsibility for the Khashoggi assassination as the Saudi leader, but he did not direct it. "If such a crime is committed against a Saudi citizen by its own officials, I must take responsibility as a leader," he said.

18 people were arrested for Khashoggi's murder. Five of them were sentenced to death by a court in Saudi Arabia. Three people were sentenced to 24-24 years in prison. Later, their death sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison. MBS advisor Saud Al-Khatani was questioned about the

incident, but no charges were brought against him. In 2019, United Nations High Commissioner Agnes Kelmard claimed that the Saudi government had planned the assassination of Khashoggi and said that the legal action taken against the accused was unjustified.

Khashoggi was once an adviser to the Saudi royal family. But suddenly after the relationship broke down, he was in exile in America since 2017. Writing a column in the Washington Post there, he criticized the policies of the Saudi crown prince. Rights groups say that Saudi Arabia has also sentenced minors to death and tortured them to make them confess their crimes.

For decades, the Saudis used to execute weekly executions by beheading with swords in public places or on the streets. But there is no sign of the bloody history of the past. Lately, cafes and restaurants are operating in those places.

"Repression is getting worse, but you can't see it," Amnesty International researcher Dana Ahmed told Reuters. Relatives of those who were sentenced to death also did not want to reveal their names due to security concerns. Some of them said they faced difficulties in the Saudi legal system, according to Reuters.