Drug trafficker beheaded in Saudi Arabia

TRAFFICKER EXECUTED: A convicted drug trafficker has been put to death by the sword in Saudi Arabia. (AFP)

A convicted drug trafficker was put to death by the sword in Saudi Arabia's eastern city of Khobar on Sunday, the interior ministry said.

Hussein Muilu, a Saudi national, was condemned to death after being convicted of smuggling hashish into the kingdom, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Sunday's beheading brings to 71 the number of executions announced by Saudi Arabia this year.

Last year, a record 153 people were put to death in the ultra-conservative Arab kingdom, which applies a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law. This figure compared with 37 beheaded in 2006.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, where executions are usually carried out in public.

Iran also hung a man convicted of drug trafficking in the northern town of Noshahr, Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

The man was executed in a prison on Saturday, Fars said, without giving further details.

The latest hangings bring to at least 182 the number of executions in Iran this year, according to an AFP count.

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