RIYADH: The Kingdom on Thursday executed a citizen for murder.

Mohammed Al-Qahtani had been convicted of gunning down a fellow Saudi with an automatic weapon during an argument, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Al-Qahtani was executed in Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency quoted the statement as saying. His beheading brought the number of executions in the Kingdom this year to 137. Last year 87 people were executed.

Under the Kingdom's laws, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are punishable by death.