MOSCOW, November 25 (Sputnik) — A Pakistani beheaded Tuesday in Saudi Arabia on drug trafficking charges became the eighth person from his country to be beheaded in the kingdom since mid-October.
Seyfour al-Rahman Golajan is the latest of 73 people, foreigners and Saudis, to be executed in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally.
He "was caught trying to smuggle a large quantity of heroin hidden in his gut into the kingdom", an interior ministry statement provided by the official Saudi Press Agency said.
Golajan was executed in the eastern city of Dammam.
According to authorities, the country is battling illicit drugs "because of their great harm to individuals and society."
The nation has very strict laws prohibiting drug trafficking; drug trafficking is a capital crime. However, despite the laws, illicit drug trafficking occurs in considerable amounts through underground channels. Saudi Arabia has signed all three international conventions on drug control.
In September, an independent expert working for the UN expressed concern about the judicial process and called for a moratorium on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
The Gulf kingdom had the third highest number of executions in the world last year after Iran and Iraq, according to Amnesty International. The figures, however, did not include China.
