Riyadh: Saudi Arabia put to death a citizen convicted of murder on Wednesday, bringing to 76 the number of executions it has carried out this year.
Authorities carried out the sentence against Abdullah al-Harbi in Buraydah, north of Riyadh, after his conviction for shooting dead another man, the interior ministry said.
Most people put to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.
The executions so far this year include 47 for “terrorism” carried out in a single day on January 2.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia executed 153 people, most of them for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP count.
Human rights group Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia last year was the highest for two decades.
The kingdom is one of the world’s top executioners, although its tally in 2015 was far behind those of China and Iran.
Saudi Arabia has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
Agence France-Presse