Two Ethiopian men from Tigray, identified by the pseudonyms Dawit Tesfay and Adam Berhe, are being held on death row at the Khamis Mushait detention centre in Saudi Arabia’s Asir region after being sentenced to death for transporting hashish.[1] Dawit Tesfay, 24, said he was sentenced after a trial lasting about two minutes in which he had no lawyer and no interpreter, and that he was made to sign documents in Arabic he could not read.[1] Adam Berhe, 34, said he knew he was carrying hashish and agreed because he was destitute in Yemen, and that he has been awaiting execution for three years.[1] Tesfay said he had never heard the word hashish until his arrest, having been recruited as a herdsman shortly after arriving in the kingdom.[1]

Tesfay said his wing of the prison held 68 death row prisoners when he arrived and holds 55 now.[1] Berhe said eight prisoners were beheaded in the same prison the week before the interview.[1] Human Rights Watch documented the executions of at least 20 Ethiopians for drug trafficking between January and August 2026, the last three on 31 July, and said at least 76 more faced imminent execution.[1] Amnesty International recorded 96 executions in Saudi Arabia between 1 January and 22 June 2026, 61 of them for drug offences and 39 of those of foreign nationals.[1] Amnesty researcher Dana Ahmed said at least 36 Ethiopians were executed in 2025 and 20 in 2026, all for smuggling hashish.[1]

Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea said documented cases showed hearings of a few minutes, some held by videoconference, with no legal representation, and that appeals had to be written in Arabic by prisoners who could not verify they were sent.[1] Shea said many of the men fled the 2020-2022 war in Tigray, crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and were recruited there by trafficking networks that did not tell them what they would carry.[1] Tigray’s former youth affairs bureau head and the men’s families asked for legal counsel, fair trials, repatriation and release, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights urged a review of the sentences.[1] The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called death sentences for drug crimes in Saudi Arabia incompatible with international law and urged the kingdom to restore its moratorium.[1]

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said in a 13 July release that 1,971 Ethiopians had received royal pardons and that their repatriation had begun.[1]