Saudi man beheaded for murder

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

RIYADH, February 22, 2010 (AFP) - A Saudi man convicted of murder was beheaded by the sword in the eastern province of Dammam on Monday, the interior ministry announced.

Fayhan al-Sabi was sentenced to death for gunning down a fellow Saudi, Samhan al-Sabi, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

It was the seventh execution announced in the conservative Muslim kingdom so far in 2010.

Sixty-seven people were executed in Saudi Arabia in 2009, while 102 were put to death in 2008. In 2007, a record 153 people were executed.

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