Saudi Arabia executes Pakistani for drug smuggling

RIYADH, July 25  - Saudi Arabian authorities executed a Pakistani on Thursday who had been convicted of smuggling heroininto the kingdom.

An Interior Ministry statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, named him as Mohammed Nabi Fateh Kal and said he had been arrested and tried in the capital Riyadh for bringing an unspecified quantity of drugs into the country.

It gave no more details.

Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic laws prescribe the death sentence for rapists, murderers and smugglers, usually by public beheading.

At least 75 people were executed in the conservative country last year and 121 in 2000.