Saudi Beheaded for Murder

A Saudi was beheaded for murder on Friday in the latest of a spate of executions this month that has drawn condemnation from human rights groups.

Othman al-Balawi was put to the sword in the northwestern city of Tabuk, an interior ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency said.

He had been sentenced to death for stabbing to death fellow Saudi Ahmed al-Atawi following a dispute.

His execution came hours after another Saudi, Fahad al-Khalidi, was beheaded in eastern port city of Jubail for the shooting death of fellow national, Abdulrahman al-Gahtani.

The latest beheadings bring to 37 the number of executions carried out in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally.

Human Rights Watch voiced alarm on Thursday at the surge in the number of executions this month, that saw 19 people beheaded between August 4 and 20.

It said eight of them had been convicted of nonviolent offenses, and described the use of the death penalty in their cases as "particularly egregious."

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.