article_snippet: Saudi Arabia is beheading criminals at an unprecedented rate - almost half of criminals for non-violent drugs crimes, the human rights charity Amnesty International has warned.
article_snippet: Saudi Arabia is believed to have executed 38 people so far this year, treble the number in the same period in 2014 and a sign Saudi Arabia is showing no mercy to offenders.
article_snippet: Some 38 people have already been beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year.
article_snippet: Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia version of Islamic sharia law.
article_snippet: The United Nations has said many Saudi trials are 'by all accounts grossly unfair' and that confessions are obtained under torture.
article_snippet: Trickle of news: Individual beheadings are only discovered when confirmed by the Interior Ministry (above) 'Some defendants, including foreign nationals facing murder charges, alleged that Individual beheadings had been tortured or otherwise coerced or misled into making false confessions in pre-trial detention.'
article_snippet: Individual beheadings have included five Pakistanis, an Indian, two Jordanians, two Syrians and a Yemeni, with few foreign governments willing to appeal publicly for clemency from the oil-rich state.
article_snippet: Three beheadings in a single day on Tuesday - one for rape and two for murder - took the total so far this year to 38, according to an AFP tally.
highlights_snippet: Amnesty International says Arab state has beheaded 38 people this year .
  