Riyadh: Saudi authorities beheaded by the sword on Tuesday a national convicted of murdering a woman after he tried to rape her, the interior ministry said.
Hussam Al Sharari was found guilty of slitting the throat of the woman who resisted his attempts to rape her after he sneaked into her house, it said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
He was executed in the city of Sakakah, in the northern Jawf region.
His beheading brings to 37 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year, according to an AFP tally.
In 2012, the kingdom executed 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch put the number at 69.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.
