Saudi Arabia beheads people by sword, executes 12 people in 10 days: Report

Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed 12 people in the last 10 days for drug-related offences. Some of these were beheadings with a sword, a report said.

As many as 12 people were sentenced to death after being imprisoned on non-violent drug charges and included three Pakistanis, four Syrians, two Jordanians and three Saudis, the Telegraph reported.

In March this year, Saudi Arabia had executed 81 people convicted of a variety of crimes, including killings and belonging to militant groups, in the largest mass execution conducted by the kingdom in its modern history.

The new wave of executions in recent days comes almost two years after Saudi Arabia vowed to reduce such punishments. It came in the wake of the murder of US journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in 2018 allegedly by a Saudi death squad at the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In 2018 too, the Saudi administration tried to minimise capital punishment with only those found guilty of murder or manslaughter being subject to capital punishment.