Oman widens the death penalty for drug dealing

In 2015 Sultan Qaboos approved Royal Decree 34/2015, which amended ten articles of Oman’s law on combating narcotics and psychotropic drugs. The amendments had been recommended by both chambers of the Council of Oman, the Majlis Al Shura and the State Council. Their main effect was to remove the quantity that had limited the death penalty.

What changed

Oman’s first dedicated narcotics law, Royal Decree 17/99, allowed a death sentence only for trafficking in more than 50 kg. The 2015 text sets no quantity.

Who	Penalty after 2015
Dealers and traffickers (Article 43)	death or life imprisonment, and a fine of more than 25,000 rials
Producers, importers and exporters	death or life imprisonment
Anyone linked to an international trafficking gang	death
Anyone who uses a minor to smuggle or sell	death
Anti-narcotics officers who take part in the trade	life imprisonment
A suspect who refuses to give a sample for testing	at least six months and a fine of 100 rials

Assaulting an enforcement officer carries at least ten years, life if the officer is permanently disabled, and death if the officer dies.

The reasoning, and the practice

A Royal Oman Police source quoted at the time said drug cases had been rising by more than 10% a year and that applying the death penalty would “definitely reduce drug cases”. The health ministry counted 5,000 people dependent on drugs in 2014, against 4,000 the year before; heroin was the drug most often seized.

The practice was milder than the text. An official of the national narcotics committee said only five smugglers or dealers had been sentenced to death in fifteen years, and executions had been halted since 2004. The country had set up more than a dozen rehabilitation centres.

Since then

A new law, issued by Royal Decree 67/2026 in September 2026, repealed the 1999 law and its amendments. It punishes possession or use for personal consumption with one to three years in prison and a fine, and lets a court send a dependent user to treatment.

Why the index moved

The index moved Oman from 4 to 2 with the 2015 decree. Enforcement fell from 2 to 1, because a capital charge no longer depended on quantity. Possession, cultivation, sharing and consumption were already at 0.^[1][2]