RIYADH:
Saudi authorities on Tuesday beheaded a national for murder and a Pakistani for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said, amid a surge in executions in the kingdom this year.
Pakistani citizen Benyameen Ali Ahmed was executed in Jeddah after being convicted of smuggling drugs in his stomach, the ministry said.
Nader bin Mussa al-Harbi was found guilty of strangling compatriot Bandar bin Muhya al-Harbi over a dispute, the ministry said in a statement carried by the SPA state new agency.
He was executed in the northern city of Hail.
The two executions bring to 51 the number of death sentences carried out in 2015, compared with 87 in all of last year, according to foreign agency tallies.
The Gulf state has carried out around 80 executions annually since 2011.
In comparison, Iran has executed more than 1,000 people since January last year, the UN special rapporteur on Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said on Monday.
