Saudi Arabia beheads Pakistani 'drug trafficker'

RIYADH: Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani man Wednesday in the eastern Qatif province after he was convicted of drug trafficking in the kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

Jaafar Ghulam Ali was “arrested as he was smuggling a large amount of heroin,” said the ministry statement quoted by the official SPA news agency.

His beheading brings to 71 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 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.

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Comments (11) Closed

Riaz

Nov 06, 2013 04:56pm

Whatta joke! They can behead a drug trafficker, but the Maulana who raped his own daughter gets 10 year jail sentence? What kinda messed up law is this? If that's what they call Islamic Law, then I am glad we don't have it in Pakistan. Shame on Saudis!

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Javed RAHMAN

Nov 06, 2013 07:39pm

They are not going by sharia law .The sharia law does not say to execute someone for drug dealing.WHAT shame for saudis

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Decent

Nov 06, 2013 08:16pm

Picture shown by the newspaper is irrelevant! Are you giving a message to Pakistanis, brutality of Saudis or Islam! By all means, picture gives a brutality messages in either way.

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umaima

Nov 06, 2013 09:21pm

I don't think that's part of the Islamic Law. Only murders have a punishment of execution...not things like robbery and drug trafficking...they have a different punishment.

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Eldrick Lal

Nov 06, 2013 09:46pm

@Riaz: Maulana was a Saudi national and perhaps belong to the monarchy but poor Pakistani is just an ordinary person. Clear picture of favoritism.

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Nov 06, 2013 09:51pm

What are the chances that he was an innocent labourer who fell victim to the smuggling scam in Pakistan. But of course, Saudi courts can do no wrong.

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Jehan Mir , MD

Nov 06, 2013 10:01pm

A country can select any set of cruel penalties as a punishment for various crimes. That is between the Government,its People and Human Rights Watch but my concern lies more in the protections in the Saudi Code of Criminal Procedure and ability of the clerics to do justice in difficult cases. It also shows that despite public beheadings, it has failed to instill fear and deter People to commit such crimes because they are poor, crazy and stupid to do crimes such as drug trafficking and death penalty should not be the punishment for plain stupidity.

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shahid

Nov 06, 2013 10:39pm

an arab ( Moulana that is) can rape and beat his 5-yrs old to death and gets mere 10yrs in jail... there are serious issues with the saudi society ...

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guest63

Nov 06, 2013 10:48pm

@Riaz: Not only this Maulan raped his 5 years old girl But he also Killed her , so he was supposed to be dealt with the same way , either killed by stoning to death ( as per the sharia law shich is supposed to be their hallmark rule ) or just beheaded , like they do all other killers . Since He was first a saudi and then a maulana , he was spared ..... such is the application of so called shariah in a so called Islamic society , so called in the house of sauds .

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mjk

Nov 06, 2013 11:23pm

@Riaz: All those draconian laws are meant for the workers of 3rd world,they don't apply on Saudi citizens

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Danish

Nov 08, 2013 03:05pm

Law is same for everyone. The Prophet peace be upon him said (after some people interceded on behalf of a thief woman) "if Fatima would have done such act her hand would also been chopped off". Wallahu Alam

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