Riyadh, August 03: A Nigerian man convicted of murdering a Saudi national after robbing him, tying him up and leaving him to die, was beheaded by the sword on Sunday, the interior ministry said.
Qorbi bin Musa Adam was executed the Red Sea port city of Jeddah for killing Ibrahim Al Assiri, who apparently suffocated to death, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
Adam stole money from Assiri, then beat him, bound his hands and feet and stuck a tape over his mouth, it said.
It was the 49th execution so far in 2009 in the kingdom, which imposes the death sentence for crimes of rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking under the country’s strict Islamic sharia law.
In 2008, Saudi Arabia put 102 people to death.
The Rome-based anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain last week ranked Saudi Arabia third in the world in 2008 for executions, after China, which carried out more than 5,000 death sentences, and Iran, with 346.
–Agencies