Saudi Beheads Citizen for Murder

Saudi authorities beheaded on Monday one of its citizens after he was convicted of shooting dead two fellow Saudis, the interior ministry announced in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Musfer bin Atallah al-Jaeed shot dead Ahmed bin Mayud al-Sawat and Fares bin Masud al-Sawat after a dispute, the ministry said.

Jaeed was beheaded in the the western province of Taef.

His beheading brings to 40 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an Agence France Presse tally based on official reports.

Under the AFP count, at least 76 people were beheaded in 2011, while rights group Amnesty International put the number of executions last year at 79.

The death penalty in Saudi Arabia applies to a wide range of offences including rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking, as well as murder, as stipulated by Islamic sharia law.