Iraqi beheaded in Arar for hashish smuggling on 22 December 2004
Iraqi national Qaied bin Kamal bin Mohammed al-Zayadi was beheaded in the northern town of Arar on 22 December 2004 after being convicted of smuggling hashish into Saudi Arabia. The Interior Ministry reported his case in the same statement that announced the New Year's Day beheadings of a fellow Iraqi in Arar and a Pakistani in Jeddah.
Iraqi national Qaied bin Kamal bin Mohammed al-Zayadi was beheaded in the northern town of Arar, close to the Iraqi border, on 22 December 2004 after being convicted of smuggling an undisclosed quantity of hashish into Saudi Arabia.[1]The Interior Ministry statement was reported by the Associated Press in its 1 January 2005 roundup, which led with the New Year’s Day beheadings of Iraqi Mattar al-Khazaali in Arar and a Pakistani heroin smuggler in Jeddah.[1]
The ministry said al-Khazaali, beheaded for hashish on 1 January, was the second Iraqi executed in Arar in ten days after al-Zayadi.[1]The roundup put beheadings at 35 in 2004 against 52 in 2003, most of them for drug smuggling.[1]Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which people convicted of drug trafficking, murder, rape and armed robbery can be executed, with beheadings carried out with a sword in public.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry executed two Ethiopian nationals in the Asir region on 11 November 2026 after convicting them of smuggling amphetamine pills and hashish into the kingdom. The ministry named the men and said their death sentences became final after appeal and confirmation by the Supreme Court.
Saudi Arabia executed five Ethiopian nationals in the Asir region on 5 November 2026 after convicting them of smuggling hashish. The executions brought the kingdom's 2026 total to 205, including 124 drug cases and 32 Ethiopians.
Saudi Arabia executed three Ethiopian nationals in the Asir region on 7 October 2026 after a court convicted them of jointly smuggling hashish into the kingdom. The interior ministry named them and said the death sentence was upheld on appeal and by the Supreme Court.
Saudi Arabia carried out a discretionary death sentence against Firas bin Ahmed bin Saleh Al-Sabah in the Madinah region on 29 August 2026 after convicting him a second time of trafficking hashish by transport.