Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday that it had executed two Pakistanis for heroin trafficking, a first for such crimes in nearly three years. The executions were carried out in the Riyadh region, according to the official SPA news agency.
The authorities intend to show “the government’s will to fight against all kinds of drugs due to the serious damage they cause to the individual and to society,” SPA said.
These murders “trample” the moratorium announced by the Saudi Human Rights Commission in January 2021 on the death penalty for drug-related crimes, Amnesty International denounced on Thursday.
“This striking escalation in the country’s use of the death penalty this year reveals the true face that the Saudi authorities hide behind the so-called progressive reform agenda they are presenting to the world,” said Diana Semaan, acting deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
128 executions during this year
In March, Saudi Arabia sparked an international outcry after executing a record 81 people in a single day on terrorism charges.
A total of 128 people have been executed in the kingdom this year, almost double the previous year when 69 people were executed. In 2020, 27 people were executed and 187 in 2019.
The executions announced this Thursday are the first in the country linked to drug trafficking since January 2020, according to an AFP count.
Source: BFM TV
