Illustration By Amarjit Sidhu

SAUDI ARABIA: 2 INMATES BEHEADED IN FIRST EXECUTIONS OF 2015

January 1, 2015: two Saudis convicted of drug trafficking became the first people executed in 2015 in the Muslim kingdom.
Malik bin Said al-Sayaari was put to death in the Al-Hasa district of Eastern Province after a repeat conviction for hashish smuggling, the interior ministry said.
Also executed on 1 January was Hussein al-Dussari, who was beheaded in Riyadh. He was convicted of shooting dead a policeman on anti-drugs patrol who was trying to arrest him. A total of 87 executions were carried out in Saudi Arabia in 2014, an increase from 78 in 2013. (Sources: AFP, 02/01/2015)