[DAWN] Soddy Arabia...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
on Thursday executed a Pak for heroin smuggling, bringing to six the number of convicted Pak drug smugglers beheaded over the past three weeks.
The sentence against Amin Allah Zar Gul was carried out in Riyadh after he was "found guilty of trying to smuggle heroin in his gut," the official Saudi Press Agency said.
The five other Paks beheaded since October 15 are among 65 people executed this year in the kingdom.
The interior ministry says the government is battling narcotics "because of their great harm to individuals and society".
A United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
independent expert called in September for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said trials "are by all accounts grossly unfair" and defendants are often not allowed a lawyer. He said confessions were obtained under torture.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.