Pakistani drug smuggler beheaded in Saudi Arabia

Published June 10, 2015
Nazir Ahmed Sultan Ahmed is the 98th foreigner or Saudi national to be executed in the conservative Muslim kingdom this year. -Reuters/file
Nazir Ahmed Sultan Ahmed is the 98th foreigner or Saudi national to be executed in the conservative Muslim kingdom this year. -Reuters/file

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded a Pakistani convicted of heroin smuggling, despite arguments by rights experts that use of the death penalty in such cases violates international law.

Nazir Ahmed Sultan Ahmed was found guilty of smuggling the drug in his intestines, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Authorities carried out the sentence in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, it said.

According to AFP tallies, he is the 98th foreigner or Saudi national to be executed in the conservative Muslim kingdom this year.

Read: A Saudi beheading, an IS beheading

The number of executions has surged compared with the 87 recorded by AFP for the whole of 2014, but still far below the record 192 which Amnesty International said were carried out in 1995.

Drug and murder convictions account for the bulk of executions in Saudi Arabia.

According to London-based Amnesty International, use of the death penalty for other than the “most serious crimes” – premeditated killings – violates international law.

Saudi court proceedings “fall far short” of global norms of fairness, according to the rights watchdog.

Under the conservative kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law, drug trafficking, rape, murder, armed robbery and apostasy are all punishable by death.

The interior ministry cites deterrence as the reason for carrying out the punishment.

Opinion

Editorial

Tax unrest
Updated 14 Jul, 2025

Tax unrest

Govt has a very poor track record of staying the course of tough decisions that affect the ruling party’s core political base.
Surging numbers
14 Jul, 2025

Surging numbers

PAKISTAN is running out of time — and space. Our population, now over 240m, continues to grow at nearly 2pc a ...
Media matters
14 Jul, 2025

Media matters

PAKISTAN’s journalists are no strangers to living dangerously. The Freedom Network’s new report, Journalism in...
Hybrid worries
Updated 13 Jul, 2025

Hybrid worries

Once elected office is reduced to theatre, useful only for maintaining appearances, it becomes a stage for managing perceptions rather than exercising power.
Bitter taste
13 Jul, 2025

Bitter taste

THE government’s plan to import 350,000 tonnes of sugar, months after allowing the export of more than twice that...
No red lines
13 Jul, 2025

No red lines

THE US’ move to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied...