PAKISTANI, AFGHAN BEHEADED IN SAUDI ARABIA FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

RIYADH (AFP)- A Pakistani and an Afghan were beheaded by the sword in
Saudi Arabia on Sunday for smuggling drugs, the kingdom's interior ministry
said.

Lal Rahman Habibullah Khan of Pakistan was caught smuggling heroin into the
kingdom and convicted of drug trafficking, said a ministry statement quoted
by the official SPA news agency. He was executed in the capital Riyadh.

Afghan national Assadullah bin Mohammed Jan bin Rahim Dad, known as
Mohammed Nabi Hamsha, was also found guilty of smuggling heroin and
executed in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, the ministry said.

The beheadings took to 30 the number of executions announced in Saudi
Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally based on official statements.

Executions generally take place in public in the conservative kingdom which
applies a strict form of sharia, or Islamic law, imposing the death penalty
for murder, rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

At least 48 people were executed in Saudi Arabia in 2002.