Saudi executed for killing couple
RIYADH—Saudi Arabia on Thursday beheaded a man convicted of killing a married couple by running over them, the interior ministry announced.
Mohammed al-Harbi, a Saudi national, was convicted of “intentionally running over” and killing a Saudi couple — Rabih al-Asiri and his wife Nasila Asiri, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
His beheading in the kingdom’s western province of Qunfudah brings the number of executions this year in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom to 66.
Earlier this month, the UN human rights office expressed concern over the rate of executions in Saudi Arabia, and called for an immediate halt to the practice.
The UN statement came after the kingdom beheaded 10 men — eight Bangladeshis and two Saudis — on the same day.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich Gulf state’s strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
