RIYADH:
Saudi Arabia
executed two convicted ‘drug traffickers’, including a Pakistani national, on Thursday,
Saudi state media reported.
The
Saudi Press Agency named the two men as
Saudi national Nasser Harshan and Pakistani national Naimtallah Kh
asta Gul.
Both were put to death on Thursday after being convicted of drug trafficking in the kingdom. SPA said Harshan was a repeat offender found guilty of dealing hashish. Gul was found guilty of dealing heroin.
Most
Saudi executions are carried out by beheading with a sword, in what the ministry says is a deterrent.
The latest
executions have increased the number of prisoners killed in the kingdom to 20 so far this year.
More than 150 people were
executed last year in
Saudi Arabia, according to
London-based rights group Amnesty International.
Amnesty reported 158 death penalties in the country for 2015, the highest annual rate in the past two decades.
Among those
executed last year was Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a high-profile figure behind a string of Shia protests in 2011 deman
ding reforms in the Wahhabi-ruled kingdom.
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