The Saudi Witch Trial: 73rd Beheading is a Saudi Woman

Activists are crying out to end beheading executions in Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi Arabian woman was beheaded after being convicted of “practising witchcraft and sorcery,” the interior ministry said in a statement published by official state-run SPA news agency.

Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar became the 73rd person executed in the ultra-conservative gulf kingdom this year after being sentenced to death in the northern Jawf province, the news agency reported.

The death continues to spark outrage among activists in the country as well as international human rights groups, who have repeatedly called for a moratorium on the death penalty in Saudi.

It comes after 9 Bangladeshis were recently beheaded in the country.

“It is wrong and disgusting to kill anyone in this way,” said one rights activist in the country. He told Bikyamasr.com via telephone that “doing this just gets people thinking we live in the Dark Ages.”

On October 7, two Saudi men convicted of murder were executed by the sword in the northern city of Tabuk, the Saudi interior ministry said. One was found guilty of stabbing to death two brothers, the other of killing an Afghan man with a machine gun.

International rights groups have condemned the Saudi government its use of the death penalty. Saudi Arabia is in the top of global nations using capital punishment, along with China, Iran and the United States.

Activists in the country are demanding an end to what they call “archaic” and “inhumane” means of killing convicted murderers.