Saudi beheaded for killing compatriot

Saudi Arabia beheaded one its citizens in Eastern Province on Wednesday after he was convicted of murdering a compatriot, the interior ministry announced.

Abdullah al-Mabyuq shot dead Mohammed al-Faraj following a dispute, said the statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

His execution in the Qatif district of Eastern Province brings to 11 the number of executions this year in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Saudi Arabia beheaded 78 people in 2013, according to an AFP count.

Last year, the UN High Commission for Human Rights denounced a "sharp increase in the use of capital punishment" since 2011 in Saudi Arabia.

According to figures from rights group Amnesty International, the number of Saudi executions rose from 27 in 2010, of whom five were foreigners, to 82 in 2011, including 28 foreigners.

In 2012, the number of executions slipped slightly to 79, among them 27 foreigners.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

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