Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed four robbers who dressed as women to lure and kill their victim, as well as a Pakistani man for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said.

The beheadings bring to 26 the number of people executed in the kingdom this year, according to an AFP tally.

The four Saudis were convicted of luring a compatriot, stealing from him and killing him.

They were executed in the eastern town of Qatif, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The use of the death penalty in such cases is part of an effort to maintain security and "justice", the ministry has said.

Pakistani Abdelghani Mohammed Akbar, who was convicted of trying to smuggle heroin into Saudi Arabia, was beheaded in the Riyadh region, the ministry said in a separate statement.

Saudi Arabia has faced constant international criticism over its human rights record, including its use of the death penalty.

The Gulf nation executed 87 people last year, up from 78 in 2013, according to an AFP tally.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under its strict version of Islamic sharia law.

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