(Riyadh) Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday that it had executed two Pakistanis for heroin trafficking, a first for this type of crime for nearly three years.
Posted at 2:33 p.m.
The executions were carried out in the Riyadh region, according to the official SPA news agency.
The authorities intend to show “the will of the government to fight against all kinds of drugs because of the serious damage they cause to the individual and to society”, specified SPA.
These killings “trample” the moratorium announced by the Saudi Commission for Human Rights in January 2021 on the death penalty for drug-related offences, Amnesty International denounced Thursday.
“This striking increase in the country’s use of the death penalty this year reveals the true face that the Saudi authorities are hiding behind the so-called progressive reform agenda they are presenting to the world,” said Diana Semaan, Deputy Director of Interim for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
In March, Saudi Arabia sparked an international outcry after it executed 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 number of the previous year when 69 people were put to death. In 2020, 27 people were executed and 187 in 2019.
The executions announced Thursday are the first in the country linked to drug trafficking since January 2020, according to an AFP count.