Jeed Basuni

The UK-based campaign group Reprieve, which tracks executions in Saudi Arabia, called this the bloodiest year in the kingdom since monitoring began.

It says that two-thirds of those put to death had been convicted of drug-related offences, and most of them were foreign rather than Saudi nationals.

The UN has said that imposing the death penalty for drug offences is incompatible with international norms and standards.

Also executed this year were a journalist and two young Saudi men who were children at the time of their arrest for their alleged role in protests.

Jeed Basuni from Reprieve says that torture and forced confessions are endemic and the authorities are acting with impunity.

The Saudi authorities have not responded to requests for comment.

But as the country increasingly opens up to the outside world, human rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia's partners abroad of looking away from the abuses it's committing.