DUBAI, Sept 12 (Reuter) Saudi Arabia beheaded an Indian heroin
smuggler and a Filipino murderer on Friday, raising the number of people
executed so far this year to 96.

An Interior Ministry statement read on Saudi television said the Indian
man was executed near Mecca after a court found him guilty of smuggling
an unspecified quantity of the drug into the conservative kingdom.

A separate ministry statement said the Filipino, also beheaded near
Mecca, had been convicted of stabbing to death an Egyptian man following
a dispute.

Saudi Arabia applies Islamic sharia law by publicly beheading by the
sword convicted murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and other
criminals.

A total of 68 people were beheaded last year.

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