Saudi Beheads Citizen for Murder

A Saudi was beheaded by the sword on Monday after being convicted of murdering a fellow citizen in the kingdom's oil-rich Eastern Province, the interior ministry said.

Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Shamri was found guilty of shooting dead Mohammed bin Jaloud al-Anzi, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The beheading brings to 64 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports.

Amnesty International says 79 people were put to death in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom last year.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under its strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.