DUBAI, Sept 19 (Reuter) Saudi Arabia executed four people on Friday a
Nigerian woman and a Pakistani man for heroin smuggling and two men for
rape and murder.

An Interior Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency
said the woman was executed in the Western port city of Jeddah for
smuggling heroin into the kingdom.

She was the second woman to be put to death in Saudi Arabia this year. On
June 30, another Nigerian woman was executed on drugs charges.

In another statement carried by the agency, the Interior Ministry said the
Pakistani man had been found guilty of smuggling an unspecified amount of
heroin into Saudi Arabia. He was beheaded by the sword in the capital Riyadh.

A third ministry statement read on Saudi television said two men were
beheaded in the northwestern city of Tabuk after being sentenced to death
for breaking into the home of a woman and raping and strangling her. It did
not give the nationality of the two or that of their victim.

The executions brought to 105 the number of people executed in the
conservative kingdom so far this year.

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

A total of 68 people were beheaded last year.