Death Penalty: More Executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia, Syrian Activists Criticize Saudis

The resort to the death penalty for drug offenses continued apace in recent days. According to reports compiled by the anti-death penalty organization Hands Off Cain, both Iran and Saudi Arabia were hard at it again. Meanwhile, the Saudis have come under fire from Syrian activists complaining that large numbers of their countrymen have fallen under the executioner's sword in Saudi Arabia.

According to recent reports, Saudi citizen Abdullah al-Qahtani was executed for trafficking in tranquilizers in Riyadh on April 11; two Nigerians caught smuggling cocaine into the kingdom inside their bodies, Mohammed Qaddus Suleyman and Idris Abdel Ghani Mohammed, were beheaded in the western Mecca region on April 13; a Saudi man, Ayyed al-Dousary, was executed for selling drugs in the southwestern city of Abha on April 15; and a Jordanian, Mohammed bin Awadh al-Khalidi, was executed for trafficking in tranquilizers in Al Qarah on April 17. Four days later, Iran got back into the game by hanging four people convicted of drug trafficking in the country's southeast.

Meanwhile Syrian human rights activists said that Saudi Arabia has sentenced at least 30 of their compatriots to death on drug charges and jailed hundreds more. "This arbitrary punishment is based on wild interpretations of the Koran. Trials lacked any modicum of justice," lawyer Mohannad al-Hassani said after meeting Syrian officials to raise the plight of the inmates. The activists expressed concern that the Syrian citizens could be suffering from the political tensions between Syria and Saudi Arabia. "I hope regular citizens do not end up paying the price for bad relations between two Arab countries," Hassani said.

Hundreds of Syrians were in Saudi jails for drug offenses, he said, many of whom had spent years awaiting trial. They are mostly young truck drivers and unskilled workers, he said.