Riyadh: Two brothers sentenced to death for
murdering a fellow Saudi were decapitated by the sword in the
city of Jeddah on Monday, the interior ministry said.
Mohammed and Selim al-Madhiribi al-Shamali were convicted
of hitting Saad al-Madhiribi on the head with a hammer and
then stabbing him to death in a business dispute, it said in a
statement carried by the state news agency SPA.
Their beheadings took to 19 the total number of
executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom so far this year,
according to a tally based on official reports.
At least 76 people sentenced to
death were beheaded in 2011, while rights group Amnesty
International put the number of executions last year at 79.
The death penalty is handed down in Saudi Arabia, which
applies strict sharia (Islamic) law, for a wide range of
offences including rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug
trafficking as well as murder.
PTI
First Published: Monday, April 09, 2012, 23:01