Woman in S.-Arabia executed for 'practising sorcery'

Saudi execution in 2009

An executioner in the northern province of Jawf in Saudi Arabia has beheaded Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar on Monday for "practising witchcraft and sorcery," the  interior ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
It is not clear how many women have been executed in Saudi-Arabia, 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. The 72th was Sultan al-Asiri, a Saudi, who was beheaded by the sword after he was found to have shot dead another citizen, Mufreh Asiri, "as they met for drinking intoxicants," said the statement carried by state news agency SPA. This beheading took place in the southwestern city of Abha.
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. Amnesty says Saudi Arabia executed 27 convicts in 2010, compared to 67 executions announced the year before.

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