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Ankara protests

Riyadh over

beheadings

ANKARA: Turkey has protested about the beheading of four Turks on drug smuggling charges in Saudi Arabia, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement, released late on Monday, said the Saudi ambassador to Ankara had been summoned to the ministry to give an explanation for the executions.

"We expressed our disillusionment that our high-level attempts to have our subjects' lives spared in line with... humanitarian considerations have not been considered as they should, and requested that the angry reaction of our public be brought to the attention of those concerned," it said.

The ministry asked the Saudi government to hand over the bodies of the executed Turks.

Two Turkish men were executed in Saudi Arabia on Friday and two more on Monday in accordance with strict sharia Islamic law, which demands the public execution by the sword of rapists, murderers, drug smugglers and violent armed robbers.

Turkish newspapers showed pictures of furious friends and relatives of the beheaded Turks, burning Saudi flags and chanting "Damn the sharia", and (King) Fahd, are you Allah?"

Hurriyet newspaper said Saudi King Fahd had ignored a letter from Turkish President Suleyman Demire asking for amnesty for the Turks.-Reuter