Saudi Carries Out 137th Execution This Year

Saudi Arabia on Thursday carried out its 137th execution this year, putting to death another of its citizens for murder.

Mohammed al-Qahtani had been convicted of gunning down a fellow Saudi with an automatic weapon in an argument, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Most executions in the kingdom are carried out by beheading with a sword, in what the ministry says is a deterrent.

Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of the trials.

According to AFP tallies, Qahtani was the 137th Saudi or foreigner put to death by the kingdom this year, compared with 87 in 2014.

He was executed in Riyadh.

London-based Amnesty International says Saudi Arabia had the world's third-highest number of executions last year, far behind China and Iran, but ahead of Iraq and the United States.

Under the kingdom's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

The case of a Saudi youth facing execution for taking part in pro-reform protests has triggered particular international concern.

During a visit to Riyadh last week, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters he "called for clemency" for Ali al-Nimr, a member of the minority Shiite community on death row.

Nimr was just 17 when arrested in February 2012.