Four Saudi men, two sets of brothers, were beheaded by sword after being convicted of smuggling cannabis into the country.[1] The government-owned Saudi Press Agency named them on 18 August as Hadi and Awad al-Motleq and Mufarraj and Ali al-Yami, and said they were executed in the southwestern city of Najran for smuggling a large quantity of hashish.[1][2]
A surge of beheadings
The beheadings brought the number of executions announced in Saudi Arabia that year to 32, by the tally of the AFP news agency.[1] Human Rights Watch said at least 19 people had been executed since 4 August, eight of them for nonviolent offences including seven for drug smuggling.[2]
Amnesty International called the pace a disturbing surge, saying 17 people had been killed in two weeks on the basis of forced confessions extracted through torture.[1] The group said relatives of the four men had contacted it days earlier fearing the executions were imminent, and were later told by the interior ministry to stop contacting the watchdog.[1]