Saudi Arabia carries out first execution of 2010

A Saudi taxi driver convicted of a series of rapes was put to death by the sword on Monday in the country's first execution of 2010.

RIYADH, January 11, 2010 (AFP) - A Saudi taxi driver convicted of a series of rapes was put to death by the sword on Monday in the country's first execution of 2010, the interior ministry announced.

Salah al-Jihni was decapitated in Medina after being sentenced for taking four female passengers into the desert where he raped, robbed and abandoned them, the official SPA news agency quoted a ministry statement as saying.

The kingdom's first execution of 2010 followed a year in which 67 people were executed, a decline from 102 in 2008 and a high of 153 in 2007.

Under the strict version of Islamic sharia law enforced in Saudi Arabia, the death penalty can be imposed for rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.