Saudi Beheaded for Killing his Brother

A Saudi was beheaded by the sword on Tuesday after being convicted of murdering his brother, the interior ministry said.

Abdullah al-Harbi was convicted of shooting dead his brother Mohammed with a pistol, it said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

His beheading in Qasim province, north of Riyadh, brought to 63 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.