Saudi Arabia beheads 73rd person in 2016
Saudi Arabia has beheaded one of its citizens after sentencing him to death for murder, bringing to 73 the number of such executions in the kingdom since the start of the year.
The convicted man, identified as Omar al-Rabie, was beheaded on Wednesday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The ministry added that al-Rabie was found guilty of shooting to death his fellow Saudi citizen Ghanem Salem in a dispute.
According to AFP tallies, the latest execution brings to 73 the number of locals and foreigners put to death this year.
In the most stunning case, Saudi Arabia executed on January 2 Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 other people in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia carried out 153 executions, including 71 foreign nationals, in 2015. This number of executions in terms of annual basis in Saudi Arabia has been unseen since 1995.
Under the Saudi law, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape and murder carry the death penalty. Beheading with a sword is the most common form of execution in Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh has been under fire for having one of the world’s highest execution rates.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Saudi regime to abolish its "ghastly" beheadings.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has recently called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its gross human rights violations.
In a statement to the 31st meeting of UNHRC, the rights group said that the kingdom has breached international humanitarian laws on numerous occasions.
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