Riyadh: A Saudi woman was beheaded on Monday
after being convicted of practising sorcery, which is banned
in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said.
Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar was executed in the northern
province of Jawf for "practising witchcraft and sorcery," the
ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
It is not clear how many women have been executed in the
desert-kingdom, but another woman was beheaded in October for
killing her husband by setting his house on fire.
The beheading took to 73 the number of executions in
Saudi Arabia this year.
In September, Amnesty International called on the Muslim
kingdom where 140 people were on death row to establish an
"immediate moratorium on executions."
The rights group said Saudi Arabia was one of a minority
of states which voted against a UN General Assembly resolution
last December calling for a worldwide moratorium on
executions.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug
trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia`s
strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
Amnesty says Saudi Arabia executed 27 convicts in 2010,
compared to 67 executions announced the year before.
PTI
