RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Friday beheaded a man convicted of trafficking drugs in the kingdom, the interior ministry said. The ministry in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency said Wahid Atawi, a Saudi national, had confessed to bringing a quantity of hashish into the country in a bid to sell the banned substance. His beheading brings to nine the number of people executed since the beginning of the year in the kingdom, according to an AFP tally based on official reports. Amnesty International said the kingdom executed 79 people in 2011. Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences, including rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.