Saudi carries out 90th execution of year


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RIYADH // Saudi Arabia beheaded a citizen convicted of murder on Wednesday taking to the number of people executed in the Kingdom this year to 90.

Mufreh Al Harissi was found guilty of stabbing to death a fellow Saudi during a dispute, the interior ministry said in a statement published by the SPA news agency.

The sentence was carried out in the south-western Jazan province.

Most people put to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.

Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of death sentences, but on January 2, 47 people were executed on terrorism charges in a single day.

Saudi Arabia carried out the third highest number of executions in the world last year — at least 158, said Amnesty International.

That was behind Pakistan with 326 and Iran which executed at least 977 people, said Amnesty.

* Agence France-Presse