Daily Times

RIYADH: Saudi authorities executed two men including a Pakistani national on Tuesday, bringing the number of executed in the kingdom to 98 so far this year.

Saudi citizen Ali Assiri, who was found guilty of stabbing a fellow tribesman to death, was executed in the South-western region of Asir, the interior ministry said. Mohammed Mukhtar, a Pakistani who was convicted of heroin trafficking, was executed in the eastern city of Dammam, the ministry said.

Saudi Arabia imposes death penalty for offences including murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy. Most people executed are beheaded with a sword. There were no be-headings during the Islamic month of Ramazan, which began in the kingdom on June 6. The executions resumed on Sunday, when authorities put a Saudi murderer to death.

Human rights group Amnesty International says that the kingdom carried out at least 158 death sentences last year, making it the third most prolific executioner after Iran and Pakistan. However, Amnesty’s figures do not include secretive China. It said that the Saudi rate of executions in the current year is higher than at the same point of last year.

Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions, although 47 people were put to death for terrorism offences on a single day in January. They included the prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution prompted the Iranian protesters to torch the Saudi Embassy in Iran, leading Riyadh to sever relations.