Saudi Arabia: 4 Convicts Are Executed

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-4-convicts-are-executed.html

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Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday that it had carried out four executions, raising the total to 130 so far in 2015. Three executions were of Saudi citizens convicted of murder, and a Syrian man was executed for drug smuggling. Analysts say it is not clear why the number of executions has increased so much from last year, when 88 people were put to death, or 2013, when at least 64 were executed, according to Human Rights Watch. Some diplomats in Saudi Arabia have said that judicial changes, including the appointment of more judges, have allowed a backlog of appeals cases to be heard, leading to a short-term rise in executions. Others have said that regional instability may have led Saudi judges to impose harsher sentences.