Saudi executes fourth Pakistani in two weeks
Three other Pakistanis found guilty of heroin smuggling have also been beheaded this month
RIYADH:
Saudi Arabia beheaded a man convicted of heroin smuggling Tuesday, the interior ministry said, bringing to four the number executed in two weeks.
Mohammed Gul Rahma was executed in Qatif in the kingdom's oil-rich Eastern Province, the official SPA news agency reported, citing the interior ministry.
Rahma "was caught smuggling a large quantity of heroin," SPA said.
Three other Pakistanis found guilty of heroin smuggling have also been beheaded this month, two of them in the Eastern Province.
Also on Tuesday, Mohammed bin Noun bin Nasser Al Dhufairi of Saudi Arabia was executed in northern Jawf region for smuggling amphetamines pills, SPA said.
It said a Saudi national was also executed in a separate case, raising to 61 the number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year, according to an AFP tally.
The interior ministry says the government "is keen on combating narcotics due to their great harm to individuals and society."
A United Nations independent expert called in September for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said trials "are by all accounts grossly unfair" and defendants are often not allowed a lawyer.
He said confessions were obtained under torture.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.
Saudi Arabia beheaded a man convicted of heroin smuggling Tuesday, the interior ministry said, bringing to four the number executed in two weeks.
Mohammed Gul Rahma was executed in Qatif in the kingdom's oil-rich Eastern Province, the official SPA news agency reported, citing the interior ministry.
Rahma "was caught smuggling a large quantity of heroin," SPA said.
Three other Pakistanis found guilty of heroin smuggling have also been beheaded this month, two of them in the Eastern Province.
Also on Tuesday, Mohammed bin Noun bin Nasser Al Dhufairi of Saudi Arabia was executed in northern Jawf region for smuggling amphetamines pills, SPA said.
It said a Saudi national was also executed in a separate case, raising to 61 the number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year, according to an AFP tally.
The interior ministry says the government "is keen on combating narcotics due to their great harm to individuals and society."
A United Nations independent expert called in September for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said trials "are by all accounts grossly unfair" and defendants are often not allowed a lawyer.
He said confessions were obtained under torture.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.