Saudi executes two Yemeni drug traffickers

Yemenis were convicted of trying to smuggle hashish

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed two Yemenis convicted of trying to smuggle hashish, bringing to 62 the number of people it has put to death this year.

The interior ministry said Ahmed Mubarak and Abdul Salam al-Jamali were executed in the southwestern city of Jazan, near their homeland.

Most people sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded by sword.



The kingdom executed 47 people in a single day on January 2 for "terrorism".

In 2015 Saudi Arabia executed 153 people, mostly for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP count.

Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia last year was the highest for two decades.



The kingdom practises a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, where the interior ministry says the death penalty is a deterrent to crime.