Saudi Arabia Executes Pakistani, Brings 2016 Beheading Toll to 93

Saudi Arabia Executes Pakistani, Brings 2016 Beheading Toll to 93
Tue May 17, 2016 21:57:38

Saudi Arabia has beheaded a Pakistani national after sentencing him to death on charges related to drug trafficking, bringing to 93 the number of executions in the kingdom this year.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement that the convicted Pakistani man, identified as Mohammed Ishaq Thawab Gul, was beheaded on Tuesday.

The man was found guilty of smuggling heroin into the kingdom, the ministry added.

In the most stunning case of executions this year, Saudi Arabia executed on January 2 Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along 46 other people in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the kingdom.

According to an AFP count, Saudi Arabia carried out 153 executions, including 71 foreign nationals, in 2015.

This number of executions in terms of annual basis in Saudi Arabia has been unseen since 1995.

Saudi officials execute convicts by sword and then dangle their corpses from a helicopter to make sure the public could see the result of the execution.

Concern is growing about the increasing number of executions in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities say the executions reveal the Saudi government’s commitment to “maintaining security and realizing justice.”

The country has come under particular criticism from rights groups for the executions carried out for non-fatal crimes.

According to the London-based rights group Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Saudi regime to abolish its “ghastly” beheadings.

Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in Saudi Arabia.

Muslim clerics have also denounced Riyadh for executing suspects without giving them a chance to defend themselves, describing the Saudi authorities as uncivilized.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi rule.

In summer last year, Saudi Arabia, with an appalling human rights record, was appointed to head an important panel at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The panel is assigned with conducting interviews and short-list experts who would then be nominated to examine specific human rights challenges; Press TV reported.

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