Saudi beheads man for killing wife with axe

Saudi authorities beheaded a national on Monday after he was convicted
of killing his wife with an axe in front of their daughter, the
interior ministry announced.

Mahdi al-Ghabari battered his wife Shaqraa al-Bahri several times on
her neck with an axe, killing her "in the presence of their little
daughter who witnessed" the crime, said the statement published by the
official SPA news agency.

He was executed due to the "hideousness" of the crime, said the statement.

The beheading in the southwestern city of Najran raised to 23 the
number of executions so far this year in the Gulf state, according to
an AFP count based on official reports.

Last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced a
"sharp increase in the use of capital punishment" in Saudi Arabia.

In 2013, there were 78 executions.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all
punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic
sharia law.