Saudi Arabia beheads two foreigners, own citizen for drug trafficking
Saudi Arabian authorities have beheaded two foreigners and a Saudi man after sentencing them to death over drug trafficking.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency that Hammud Hajuri from Yemen and Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi national, were executed in the southwestern province of Jizan on Wednesday.
In a separate case, Fadi Abdulrazzaq, a Syrian national, was executed in the northern province of Jawf.
Saudi sources said the men were found guilty of smuggling an undisclosed amount of narcotics into the country.
The beheadings bring to 43 the number of people executed across the kingdom so far this year. Last year, Saudi authorities executed 87 people, compared with 78 in 2013.
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. Amnesty International has slammed Saudi Arabia for having one of the highest execution rates in the world.
Muslim clerics have also censured 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.
JR/MKA/SS
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