Saudi Beheads Two for Murder, Drug Trafficker

A Saudi found guilty of drug trafficking and a convicted murderer were beheaded by the sword on Friday in the conservative Muslim kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

The ministry, in statements carried by state news agency SPA, said Eid al-Umairi, found guilty of having dealt with "large quantities of amphetamines", was executed in the northwestern city of Tabuk.

And Meshari al-Oteibi was beheaded in Riyadh for the murder of a fellow Saudi national, it said.

The beheadings raised to 22 the number of executions so far this year in the Gulf state, according to an AFP count based on official reports.

Last year, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced a "sharp increase in the use of capital punishment" in Saudi Arabia.

In 2013, there were 78 executions.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.