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| Medieval and barbaric: public beheading in Saudi Arabia |
Saudi Arabia on Monday beheaded two convicted criminals, bringing to 100 the total executions in the Gulf kingdom this year, AFP reported.
One of the people beheaded Monday, a Syrian drug trafficker named Ismael al-Tawm, smuggled “a large amount of banned amphetamine pills into the kingdom,” according to a Saudi interior ministry statement.
A separate statement said the other person beheaded was Rami al-Khaldi, a Saudi national convicted of stabbing another Saudi to death.
The number of executions carried out in Saudi Arabia this year has skyrocketed since 2014, when the total number of executions was 87 for the entire year, reported AFP.
The majority of executions in Saudi Arabia are due to murder and drug convictions.
London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International has stated that use of death penalty for any but the “most serious crimes” violates international law. However, under Saudi Arabia’s legal code, murder, drug trafficking, rape, homosexuality and other crimes are punishable by death.
Source: Agence France-Presse, June 15, 2015
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