Saudi Arabia executed an
Indonesian woman in Makkah on Saturday for killing a Saudi woman, the official
Saudi Press Agency reported, citing a statement from the Interior
Ministry.
Ruyati
Saruna confessed to killing Khairiyah Majlad with a machete, the news
service said. A royal decree was issued for the execution after the
conviction was upheld by the court of cassation and the Supreme Court,
the news service said.
Saudi
Arabia, a G-20 member, is an absolute monarchy that adheres to a strict
version of Islam.
Homosexuality is illegal and the kingdom’s courts
often sentence people to death by public beheading for crimes such as
rape, murder and drug trafficking.
The
government of King Abdullah “is keen on the preservation of security,”
the news service said, citing the Interior Ministry statement.
“Anyone
who attacks the secured people and sheds their blood” will be punished
according to religious law, it said.
Amnesty
International on June 10 urged Saudi Arabia to halt the use of the death
penalty after a “significant increase” in executions this year.
At
least 27 people have been executed in the kingdom this year, the same
number as for all of 2010, Amnesty said in a statement on its website.
Fifteen people were executed in May alone, the London-based rights group
said.
The number
of executions had been declining, dropping to at least 69 people in 2009
from about 102 people the year before and 158 people in 2007, according
to Amnesty.
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