Saudi Arabia executes 73rd person this year

A Saudi national convicted of murder has been executed, bringing to 73 the number of people put to death in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom this year, the interior ministry said.

Omar al-Rabie was found guilty of shooting to death Ghanem Salem following a dispute, the ministry says in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Most people executed in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.

The executions so far this year include 47 for “terrorism” carried out in a single day on January 2.

The number puts Saudi on pace for some 350 executions in 2016, which would be the highest in at least two decades.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia executed 153 people, most of them for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP count.

— AFP

 

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