Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani earlier today for trafficking heroin hidden in his stomach into the kingdom, the interior ministry said, the latest in dozens of executions this year.
Mohammed Sadiq Hanif was arrested during his attempt to smuggle “a large amount” of heroin, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
Last month, Saudi authorities beheaded four Pakistanis convicted of smuggling heroin into the kingdom.
The beheading today, in the eastern town of Khubar raises to 63 the number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year, despite international concerns.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of Islamic sharia law.
