Riyadh, June 11: Saudi Arabia beheaded a man convicted of murder in the capital Riyadh, the interior ministry announced.
Hanif Otaibi, a Saudi national, was sentenced to death for shooting and stabbing fellow citizen Hilal al-Jaeed during a dispute it said in a statement carried by the state news agency SPA.
The beheading raised to 24 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP count based on official reports.
In 2010, 27 executions were reported in the oil-rich kingdom, down from 67 in 2009 and 102 in 2008.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the conservative Muslim kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
Courtesy: Arab News