RIYADH, April 10: A Pakistani convicted of drug trafficking and a Saudi found guilty of murder were beheaded by the sword on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry announced.

The ministry, quoted by the state news agency SPA, said Qol Iyaz Moazem Khan had smuggled in heroin concealed in his stomach. The Pakistani’s execution was carried out in the Riyadh region.

Abdullah al-Subai was beheaded in the southern region of Assyr for stabbing to death a fellow Saudi, it said.

The beheadings raised to 40 the number of executions announced in the conservative Muslim kingdom this year. In 2007, a record 153 people were executed in Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict version of Islamic law.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty in the ultra-conservative country, where executions are usually carried out in public.—AFP