Beheadings Follow Drug Convictions

Saudi executioners on Monday beheaded two more Turks convicted of drug trafficking, the Interior Ministry said.

A ministry statement identified the Turks as Ahmed Yousuf Mulayam and Fawzi Mohammed Dana. They were executed in Sakakah, in the northwestern al-Jawf region.

Another two Turks were beheaded along with a Saudi Arabian on Friday for drug trafficking in the same region.

Islamic law prescribes beheading for only the most serious crimes. The Islamic kingdom’s theologians included drug trafficking in 1987.

A record 130 people have been beheaded this year, mostly Asians and Africans convicted of drug offenses.