SAUDI EXECUTES THREE FOR DRUGS, MURDER ATTEMPT

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed a Pakistani man and a Nigerian for drugs
smuggling and a Filipino for attempted murder.

The executions, reported by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), brought
to at least 48 the number of people put to death in the conservative
kingdom so far this year.

An Interior Ministry statement carried by SPA said the Filipino man had
been sentenced to death for stabbing and seriously wounding a taxi driver
outside the Red Sea port city of Jeddah with the aim of stealing his car.
He was executed in Jeddah.

The Pakistani man, who was executed in the capital Riyadh, had been
convicted of smuggling an unspecified amount of heroin into Saudi Arabia,
the ministry said in a separate statement.

The Nigerian national, convicted of smuggling an unspecified quantity
amount of cocaine to the kingdom, was put to death in Jeddah, a third
ministry statement said.

Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic sharia laws, executing murderers,
rapists, drug smugglers and those convicted of other serious crimes.
Executions are usually by public beheading.