An Indonesian housemaid was beheaded by the sword in Saudi Arabia on Saturday after being convicted of killing her female employer, the interior ministry said.
Yanti Sukardi was executed in the south-western province of Assir after she was found guilty of strangling her Saudi employer, Aisha al-Mukhaled, as she slept and stealing her jewellery, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
It was the second execution announced in Saudi Arabia in 2008, after a year in which a record number of people were put to death. A total of 153 people were executed in 2007 in the kingdom, which applies a strict version of Shariah.
This figure compared with 37 beheaded in 2006, and the previous record number of 113 executions in 2000.