RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Thursday beheaded a Pakistani man for smuggling heroin, the twelfth person from Pakistan to be executed in the kingdom for drug trafficking since mid-October.
They are among 85 foreigners and Saudis put to death this year in the oil-rich kingdom, according to an AFP tally.
Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest execution tolls.
The sentence against Ismail Khan Sayed was carried out in Eastern Province after his conviction for smuggling "a large amount" of heroin, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
In addition to amphetamines and other drugs, Saudi authorities seized almost 18 kilogrammes of raw heroin during the Islamic calendar year that ended in October, according to the Interior Ministry.
The Gulf has become an increasingly important market for illicit drugs in recent years, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
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@SHAHID:
You'd probably pay a little more attention to what people write and read it had there been people on trial you cared for. So let me repeat it again, according to UN and many other organizations these people are forced into making false confessions. They are denied access to lawyers, people denied to watch the judgement/ reasons for the judgement. A person with brain worth even 2 cents can tell something fishy is going on there.
Most of these people "caught" are laborers, whose lives are considered pretty cheap by all Arab countries.
Lastly, I have a questions for you and other people pretty excited here. These drugs were being delivered to locals, yes? who would be Saudi citizens most probably. There is never any action on their end. Go figure..
@Azi: Why not, when plenty of Pakistanis are available to get their heads chopped off caught smuggling drugs, narcotics and illegal items. Good entertainment on a Friday.
@ishrat salim: Because it is Saudi Arabia. The US and EU have shown that their friends are despotic regimes who feed their energy needs.
Not very different from what we are doing in Pakistan. After the Peshawar attack instead of critically looking at our situation and finding a viable solution we have resorted to execution. The death penalty has historically never worked. IN the midst of anger we have given away our rights. It resemblance to our situation how the patriot act was signed in the US after 911 is uncanny and im sure we all know how that turned out for them.
@Sohail Abbasi:
Lol @ your own ignorance, Mr. Many of these people are forced into confessions and are not guilty. All of them denied lawyer to prove their crimes. What the immigration officer said is taken as universal truth.
No one disagrees that there should be law and order. Criminals should be prosecuted. But killing them just promotes extremism and the disregard for human life that is so prevelant in Muslim societies. My request is to value life.
@Sohail Abbasi: Please take my advice and never accept anything from anyone when boarding a flight to Saudi from Pakistan like many poor and ignorant Pakistanis do. I say this because there may be 1000's of faithfuls to watch the beheadings but none is allowed inside the courts where summary sentences are passed. May Allah continue to be your Protector.
lol @ above comments from azi & ishrat what do you want? to set smugglers free? just like we are doing in pakistan or trail them for years and the result is zero even our grave yards are full of drugs addicted people sorry to say, i am living here since i born and Alhamdulillah i am happy with the police laws here just because of this strictness a person thinks 1000 times before commiting a crime we have to obey the rules of any country in this world or else just leave, in Pakistan we didn't hanged the terrorists and the result is in front of us they simply murdered our children and now our judges stopped hanging them because we are following british laws in a Islamic republic of pakistan,
Where is the EU commission & UNHR & HR groups ? why are they not saying anything to them ? I dare them ?
The world in chaos, helpless people getting murdered, intelligent and qualified people not getting jobs, the tragedies.... Meanwhile in KSA, tickets for beheading show on sale.