Activists stage mock executions outside Saudi Arabia's embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 1, 2010, after a Lebanese man was allegedly beheaded in Saudi Arabia for performing witchcraft. Photo: AP DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings reaching their highest level in the kingdom in two decades, according to several advocacy groups that monitor the death penalty worldwide. Coinciding with the rise in executions is the number of people executed for non-lethal offenses that judges have wide discretion to rule on, particularly for drug-related crimes. Rights group Amnesty International said in November that at least 63 people had been executed since the start of the year for drug-related offenses. That figure made for at least 40 percent of the total number of executions in 2015, compared to less than 4 percent for drug-related executions in 2010. Amnesty said Saudi Arabia had exceeded its hig...
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