Saudi Arabia beheaded Saudi citizen Rabie al-Saiari in Najran, a district on the border with Yemen, on 12 May 2015.[1][2] The Interior Ministry said he had been convicted of trying to smuggle hashish into the kingdom, in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.[1][2]

The execution was the kingdom’s 80th beheading of the year, edging towards the 87 executions carried out during all of 2014, according to an Agence France-Presse tally.[1][2] The ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for its use of the death penalty despite criticism from human rights watchdogs, and Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia among the world’s top three executioners of 2014.[1]