Two Thai nationals beheaded in Saudi for drug smuggling
Riyadh - Two Thai nationals convicted of drug trafficking were beheaded with a sword in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the interior ministry said in a state¬ment carried by the official SPA news agency.
The ministry said the two men were executed in the eastern city of Dammam for smuggling a "large quantity of hashish" into the king¬dom hidden inside sporting equip¬ment. The latest beheadings brings to 55 the number of executions announced by the Saudi govern¬ment so far this year. For the whole of 2006, at least 37 people were executed, while 83 were put to death in 2005 and 35 the year before, according to AFP tallies based on official statements. Executions are usually carried out in public in Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict form of sharia, or Islamic law. Rape, murder, aposta¬sy, armed robbery and drug traf¬ficking can all carry the death penalty. Agence France Presse
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