Saudi Beheaded for Tribal Killing

Saudi authorities beheaded a citizen in the western province of Taif on Thursday after he was convicted of shooting dead another man, the interior ministry announced.

Saad bin Shbat al-Subaie was executed for shooting dead fellow tribesman Mughnem bin Mohammed al-Subaie, the ministry said in a statement published by the official SPA news agency.

His execution brings to 69 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an Agence France Presse count.

In 2012, the conservative Muslim kingdom carried out 76 executions, according to a tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich Gulf state's strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.