<div>Saudi Arabia beheaded two people for murder today, one of whom was from India, the interior ministry said.<br /><br />Sajada Ansari, a shepherd, was convicted of robbing his Saudi boss as he slept and beating him to death with a hammer, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.<br /><br />The other convict, Saudi Mater al-Rowaeeli, was condemned for shooting dead his ex-wife and two of their children.<br /><br />Both executions were carried out in the kingdom's north.They bring to 65 the number of beheadings by the sword this year in Saudi Arabia, a surge that compares with 87 death sentences in all of 2014, according to AFP tallies.<br /><br />Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.<br /><br />Amnesty International's 2014 global report on the death penalty ranks Saudi Arabia among the top five executioners in the world.<br /><br />The interior ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for carrying out the punishment and says executing murderers aims "to maintain security and realise justice".</div>
<div>Saudi Arabia beheaded two people for murder today, one of whom was from India, the interior ministry said.<br /><br />Sajada Ansari, a shepherd, was convicted of robbing his Saudi boss as he slept and beating him to death with a hammer, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.<br /><br />The other convict, Saudi Mater al-Rowaeeli, was condemned for shooting dead his ex-wife and two of their children.<br /><br />Both executions were carried out in the kingdom's north.They bring to 65 the number of beheadings by the sword this year in Saudi Arabia, a surge that compares with 87 death sentences in all of 2014, according to AFP tallies.<br /><br />Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.<br /><br />Amnesty International's 2014 global report on the death penalty ranks Saudi Arabia among the top five executioners in the world.<br /><br />The interior ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for carrying out the punishment and says executing murderers aims "to maintain security and realise justice".</div>