Saudi beheads Syrian for drug smuggling

Riyadh: Saudi authorities beheaded a Syrian man today after he was convicted of trafficking drugs into the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said.

Waleed Zeineddin was arrested while trafficking a large amount of amphetamine stimulant capsules that are listed as drugs in Saudi Arabia, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. His beheading in the northern Jawf region, brings to 67 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an AFP count. In 2012, the conservative Muslim kingdom carried out 76 executions, according to a tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich Gulf state`s strict version of sharia, or Islamic law. AFP