Saudi Beheads 3 for Drug Trafficking
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded three people convicted of smuggling narcotics into the ultra-conservative kingdom, where executions have accelerated this year, the interior ministry said.
Amnesty International warned that the kingdom was "well on track" to surpass its previous annual execution record, on the back of this "unprecedented spike" in killings.
Hammud Hajuri from Yemen and Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi, were executed in southwestern Jizan province after being found guilty of trafficking amphetamines and hashish, the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the SPA state news agency.
It said a Syrian, Fadi Abdulrazzaq, was executed in the northern province of Jawf after having been convicted of smuggling amphetamines.
The latest beheadings bring to 43 the number since the start of 2015, according to an Agence France-Presse tally.
"This unprecedented spike in executions constitutes a chilling race to the bottom for a country that is already among the most prolific executioners on the planet," said Said Boumedouha, deputy regional director at Amnesty International.
The "alarming execution rate" puts the kingdom "out of step with the vast majority of countries around the world that have now rejected the death penalty in law or practice," he added.
The London-based rights group said that around half of the executions this year were for drug-related offenses, charging that this contradicts Saudi claims that the death penalty is imposed for only the most serious crimes.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's version of Islamic sharia law.
The Gulf state has carried out around 80 executions annually since 2011, with 87 last year by AFP's tally.
Source: Agence France Presse
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