A Saudi man was beheaded by the sword on Friday after he was convicted of deliberately starting a prison fire which killed 69 inmates in September 2003, the interior ministry said. Saad bin Fhaid al-Sebaiei was executed in Riyadh after he was found guilty of starting the blaze at Al-Hair jail on the southern edge of the Saudi capital, where he was held at the time, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
In April 2004, the head of Riyadh prisons was fired and several other officials were suspended for dereliction of duty in the deadly incident in Saudi Arabia's largest prison, which housed about 3,500 inmates. The interior ministry said at the time that an inquiry committee established that the fire was started deliberately by Sebaiei, who set a blanket ablaze as prisoners were assembling for noon prayers.
Friday's beheading brings to 86 the number of executions announced by Saudi Arabia this year. Last year, a record 153 people were executed in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom, which applies a strict version of Shariah or Islamic law. This figure compared with 37 in 2006 and the previous record number of 113 executions in 2000.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report last month that executions were surging in Saudi Arabia and that the principal victims were poor migrant labourers and Saudis without connections. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty in the ultra-conservative country, where executions are usually carried out in public.