Saudi Who Killed with Car Executed by Sword

Saudi Arabia beheaded by sword one of its citizens on Tuesday after a court convicted him of murder, the interior ministry said.

Shuwail al-Amri was found guilty of killing Mohammed al-Amri, an apparent relative, by deliberately running him over with a car after a dispute, the ministry said in a statement published by SPA state news agency.

The execution took place in the southwestern region of al-Baha.

His beheading brings to 48 the number of people executed in the ultra-conservative kingdom this year.

In 2012, the kingdom put to death 76 people, according to an Agence France Presse 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 Saudi Arabia's strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.