death penalty news January 3, 2005
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudis hold first execution of New Year Saudi Arabian authorities Monday beheaded a Saudi national convicted of stabbing to death a compatriot. An Interior Ministry statement said the convict was executed with a sword, in accordance with Islamic law. The execution, the first in Saudi Arabia this year, took place in the city of Taif in the western part of the kingdom. As many as 35 people were executed last year in Saudi Arabia, mostly smugglers. Some 52 people, including foreigners, were executed in 2003. Executions of people convicted of murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking are conducted in public, in line with Shariah, the legal code of Islam, which is applied in the conservative Muslim kingdom. (source: UPI / Washington Times)
