‘I am innocent; someone else handed me the vehicle’: Abooty’s argument before Saudi execution

RIYADH: Abooty Vellili, a native of Peringadi in Mahe, who was executed in Saudi Arabia in a drug trafficking case, had maintained before the court that he was innocent and that the vehicle in which the drugs were found had been handed over to him by someone else.

Abooty (41) was executed at a prison in Dammam after being convicted in a case involving the smuggling of 43 kg of drugs from Oman to Saudi Arabia in 2023. The Saudi Interior Ministry announced that his death sentence had been carried out.

Abooty had argued in court that he was not involved in the drug trafficking and that the vehicle had been given to him by another person. However, the vehicle in which the drugs were found was registered in his name. His death sentence was upheld by both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The sentence was subsequently carried out after a royal order was issued.