Saudi Executed for Machinegun Murder
Saudi authorities on Sunday beheaded a citizen in the western city of Medina after he was convicted of shooting dead another man, the interior ministry said.
Sultan bin Rashid al-Mutairi had been found guilty of using a machinegun to kill Mused bin Nayer al-Mutairi after a dispute between the pair, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
His beheading brings to 34 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year, according to an Agence France Presse tally.
In 2012, the kingdom executed 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch put the number at 69.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.
Source: Agence France Presse
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