Saudi Arabia executes national for murder

Interior ministry says Ahmed al-Harbi was found guilty of stabbing and shooting Fahed al-Balawi in a dispute

RIYADH: Saudi authorities on Monday executed a national for murdering a compatriot, bringing to 56 the number of convicts put to death in the kingdom this year.

Ahmed al-Harbi was found guilty of stabbing and shooting Fahed al-Balawi in a dispute, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

He was executed in the northern city of Tabuk. Most executions in Saudi Arabia are done by beheading with a sword.

Last year the kingdom executed 153 people, mostly for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP tally.

On a single day last month it put 47 people to death for "terrorism", including influential Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2015 was the highest for two decades.

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