Saudi Beheaded for Murder of Policeman

A man convicted of murdering a policeman during a drug trafficking arrest was beheaded on Friday, the Interior Ministry said, raising to at least 71 the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year.

The ministry, in a statement carried by the state news agency SPA, said Fahd Kahtani had also wounded several other police officers with machinegun fire.

In September, Amnesty International called on the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom where 140 people were on death row to establish an "immediate moratorium on executions."

The rights group said Saudi Arabia was one of a minority of states which voted against a U.N. General Assembly resolution last December calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

Amnesty says Saudi Arabia executed 27 convicts in 2010, compared to 67 executions announced the year before.