Saudi executes another Pakistani national in Jeddah for drug smuggling

Another Pakistani national has been executed – the third in less than two weeks – in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia after he was found guilty of smuggling drugs, the kingdom’s ministry of Interior said on Monday.

Saddam Hussein Mohammad Anar was arrested for smuggling a quantity of heroin, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Following an investigation, he was charged with the offence and referred to court. He was handed the death sentence, with the verdict endorsed by the appeal and supreme courts. A royal order was issued to enforce the sentence.

He was executed on Monday in the Jeddah province of Makkah, the report said.

The kingdom’s laws on drug smuggling are among the strictest in the world and it has carried out multiple executions of people convicted of the crime.

Last Monday, Pakistani national Omran Haidar Ghulam Hussain was executed in Jeddah for the offence while Abdul Malik Muhammad Khalil, another Pakistani national, was also executed in Jeddah on April 11 after he was found guilty of smuggling heroin into the kingdom by hiding it in his stomach.

A Pakistani national and two Egyptians were executed on drug smuggling charges in January, while three Pakistani nationals were executed in October for smuggling heroin.

The interior ministry has reiterated that the government is keen on “combating narcotics due to their harm to individuals and the society, warning anyone who tries to commit such actions to be punished according to the Islamic Sharia law”.