Saudi Arabia beheads Pakistani national on drug trafficking-related charges

This file photo shows the beheading of a man in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has beheaded a Pakistani national after sentencing him to death on charges related to drug trafficking.

The convicted Pakistani drug smuggler, identified as Babir Hussein Mohammed Ishaq, was beheaded on Thursday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The man was found guilty of smuggling heroin, which he had ingested, into Saudi Arabia, the ministry added.

The Thursday beheading was reportedly the 29th execution of foreigners and Saudis in the country in the first six weeks of the 2015. Last year, Saudi authorities executed 87 people, compared with 78 in 2013.

On Tuesday, a Syrian national was beheaded in the northwestern Jawf region on similar charges, the kingdom’s Interior Ministry said. In January, Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani national and a Saudi man after sentencing them to death over drug trafficking and murder.

Concern is growing about the increasing number of executions in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials execute convicts by sword and then dangle their corpses from a helicopter to make sure the public could see the result of the execution.

Saudi authorities say the executions reveal the Saudi government’s commitment to “maintaining security and realizing justice.”

The country has come under particular criticism from rights groups for the executions carried out for non-fatal crimes. According to the London-based rights group Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world.

Muslim clerics have also slammed Riyadh for indicting and then executing suspects without giving them a chance to defend themselves, describing the Saudi authorities as uncivilized.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi rule.

IA/HJL/MHB


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