Saudi Executes Iraqi Man for Murder

W460

Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed an Iraqi man convicted of murder, the interior ministry said, bringing to 60 the number of convicts put to death in the kingdom this year.

Wissam al-Mahssanawi was found guilty of shooting dead Emirati national Mohammed al-Amiri and stealing his car, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

He was executed in the northeastern city of Hafr al-Baten.

The kingdom on January 2 executed 47 people in a single day for "terrorism".

In 2015 it executed 153 people, mostly for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP tally.

Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia last year was the highest for two decades.

However, the tally was far behind that of China and Iran.

The kingdom practices a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

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