Saudi national executed in the kingdom for smuggling drugs

Saudi Arabia has executed one of its citizens who was found guilty of smuggling drugs into the country, the interior ministry revealed on Wednesday.

Sulaiman bin Qubail bin Jalil Al-Atawi, a Saudi national, was executed in Tabuk region for smuggling a large quantity of prohibited amphetamine pills, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The ministry said that the accused was convicted by the court with the sentence endorsed by the appeal and supreme courts. A royal order was issued to execute the sentence.

The ministry 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”.

Also read: Three Saudi nationals executed in Qatif for brutally killing five Indians

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.

Two Pakistani nationals were executed earlier this month for smuggling heroin including one in Jeddah and another in Saudi Arabia’s eastern region.

In July, two Pakistani nationals and a Lebanese national were executed in the kingdom, while a Nigerian national was executed in Madinah in June for smuggling cocaine in his intestines.

Also read: Saudi executes two nationals for luring man to his death