The man posted a video on social media site Keek which allegedly shows him renouncing his faith, ripping up the Koran and hitting it with his shoe

An Islamic court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for renouncing his Muslim faith and posting a video on a social media site which shows him ripping up the Koran before hitting it with his shoe.

The unnamed man in his 20s, from Hafr-Al-Batin, posted a video on social media site Keek which allegedly shows him ripping up Islam's holy book and hitting it with a shoe.

He has now been sentenced to death for denouncing his Muslim faith and 'various other acts of blasphemy.'

A source who was in the General Court during his hearing said: 'In the video he cursed God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his daughter Fatimah and ripped a copy of the Holy Qur'an and hit it with a shoe.

'The death sentence was issued after his apostasy was proven,' the English-language daily Saudi Gazette reported today.

The Hafr Al-Batin branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrested the man last year and his case was forwarded to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict school of Islam and gives the clergy control over its justice system.

Under its interpretation of Sharia, apostasy demands the death penalty - as does other religious offences like sorcery - while blasphemy and criticism of senior Muslim clerics have incurred jail terms and corporal punishment.

Executions in Saudi Arabia are usually carried out by public beheading.

International rights groups say the Saudi justice system suffers from a lack of transparency and due process, that defendants are often denied basic rights such as legal representation and that sentencing can be arbitrary.

The Saudi government has taken some steps to reform its judicial system but has also defended it as 'fair'.

Last year a court in Jeddah sentenced Saudi liberal Raif Badawi to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for publishing criticism of the kingdom's ruling religious and political elite and calling for reforms in Islam.

The first of 50 of those lashes were carried out in January, but subsequent rounds of flogging have not occurred.

Officials have not publicly commented on the case, but insiders say the lashing appears to have been quietly dropped.