RIYADH: Saudi Arabia beheaded a man for drug trafficking raising to 57 the number of executions it has carried out so far this year.
Saleh al-Yami was convicted of smuggling hashish and banned narcotic pills and of wounding several policemen, the interior ministry said.
He was executed in the southern province of Najran, said a ministry in a statement.
Saudi Arabia has seen a surge in executions this year. Human rights group Amnesty International says around half of them have been for drug-related offences.
Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom’s strict version of Islamic sharia law.
