SAUDI Arabia is on course for a record number executions 2019 if the killings continue at the present rate.

The desert kingdom has already reportedly 43 people in the first three months of this year – the most recent being a Syrian man who was put to death on March 13 for smuggling amphetamine pills.

3 A majority of executions are carried out by public beheading Credit: Rex Features

If this rate continues , 172 will have been put to death by the end of the year, it was reported.

The record for the number of executions carried out by Saudi Arabia was 158, according to human rights advocates Amnesty International.

Of those executed this year, 21 were reportedly for drugs offences.

But other crimes which carry the death penalty include adultery, renouncing Islam, treason, espionage, burglary as well as murder, terrorism, rape or espionage.

Beheading remains the most common form of execution and the sentence traditionally carried out in a public square on a Friday after prayers.

Deera Square in the centre of the capital Riyadh is known locally as "Chop Chop Square”.

Figures from anti-death penalty campaigners Reprieve, showed that executions doubled in Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He is the country's effective ruler and the driving force behind liberal reforms in nation, including allowing women to drive.

The number of people put to death between June 2017 – when he came to power – and March 2018 was 133, compared to just 67 in the preceding eight months before he was installed.

Nearly half of those were poor migrants, mostly from South Asia, who had been coerced into smuggling drugs.

'CHOP CHOP SQUARE'

Nearly 40 per cent of those executed last year were convicted of drugs offences, with 77 per cent of them being foreign nationals.

In October the execution of an Indonesian maid, Tuti Tursilawati, without either her family or the Indonesian authorities even being told led to worldwide condemnation.

She was found guilty in June 2011 of killing her Saudi employer, but claimed she had acted in self-defence after he tried to rape her.

“These are typically poor migrant workers, coerced into smuggling drugs in their intestines,” said Reprieve.

Despite an upward trend in the number of executions since 2000, Saudi Arabia is still in third place behind China and Iran, where between 249 and 285 people were executed in 2018. In 4th and 5th place are Iraq and Pakistan.

It was Saudi Arabia’s largest mass execution since 1980 when 63 rebels were put to death for seizing Mecca’s Grand Mosque.

In 2015 the authorities in Riyadh advertised for eight new executioners because it couldn’t keep up with the rising number of death sentences.

It asked for no specific skills but said the job included “executing a judgement of death”.

Over the years there have been reports of the bizarre and barbaric punishments handed down in Saudi Arabia.

Amnesty International reveal dramatic rise in the number of people executed globally since 1989

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The country has no written penal code and no code of criminal procedure and judicial procedure.

That allows courts wide powers to determine what constitutes a criminal offence and what sentences crimes deserve.

The list of punishments makes for grim reading and there have been reports of people being sentenced to crucifixion, amputation, eye-gouging, paralysis, stoning and a flogging.

3 An execution taking place in a public square in Jeddah Credit: Alamy

3 Mohammed bin Salman is the country's crown prince - executions have been rising since he assumed the title Credit: Reuters

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