CAIRO: A Pakistani man convicted of smuggling drugs into the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom of Saudi Arabia was beheaded on Monday, the interior ministry said in a statement. “Salman Khan Taj Mohammad, a Pakistani… was arrested as he was caught smuggling a large amount of heroin” into the country, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. According to the statement, the man was arrested, interrogated and convicted of smuggling drugs, with the penalty for such offenses the death penalty. He was executed in Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, SPA reported, bringing to at least five the number of Saudi executions carried out so far in 2012. Earlier this month, the United Nations top human rights official voiced concern and condemnation over Riyadh's apparent indiscriminate use of capital punishment this year. “We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to respect international standards guaranteeing due process and the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, to progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and to reduce the number of offences for which it may be imposed,” Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva. “What is even more worrying is that court proceedings often reportedly fall far short of international fair trial standards, and the use of torture as a means to obtain confessions appears to be rampant,” Colville added. Colville also lashed out at the country's use of the death penalty for crimes including adultery and witchcraft and sorcery, which saw a woman executed last month after being convicted of being a witch. The OHCHR also expressed grave concern at the recent sentencing of six men convicted on charges of highway robbery. The men were condemned to “cross amputation” – a form of punishment which involves the amputation of the men's right hands and left feet. “We call on the authorities to halt the use of such cruel, inhuman, degrading punishment,” Colville continued, noting that as a party to the Convention against Torture, Saudi Arabia is “bound by the absolute prohibition” against the use of torture and other forms of cruel punishment. One political activist in the country told Bikyamasr.com on condition of anonymity that the use of the death penalty is applied “as both a deterrent and a way of getting the hardcore conservatives behind the government. It's a give and take.” With the country nearly tripling the number of executions in 2011 as compared to the previous year, and with one person being executed every other day already this year, worries are that the death penalty is being used widely and swiftly as the chief form of punishment. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/ZYEdn Tags: Drugs, Execution Section: Human Rights, Latest News, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia
