Saudi Beheads Sudanese 'Sorcerer'
Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sudanese man by sword in the western city of Medina on Monday after he was convicted of practicing sorcery, the interior ministry announced.
Abdul Hamid al-Fakki "practiced witchcraft and sorcery," which are illegal under Saudi Arabia's Islamic sharia law, said a ministry statement carried by state news agency SPA.
In October last year, Amnesty International said it had appealed to King Abdullah in a letter to commute Fakki's death sentence.
His execution brings to 42 the number of people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an Agence France Presse tally based on official and human rights group reports.
In June, London-based watchdog Amnesty International called on Saudi Arabia to stop applying the death penalty, saying there had been a significant rise in the number of executions in the previous six weeks.
It said 15 people were executed in May alone.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
Source: Agence France Presse
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