Special to WorldTribune.com

Saudi Arabia has carried out 50 executions in the first 10 days of 2016.

Saudi Arabia is the chair of the UN Human Rights Council UNHRC.

The 50th execution of the new year came on Jan. 10 when Jinat Farid from Ethiopia was executed for the murder of a Saudi woman, according to the Saudi interior ministry.

Authorities said Farid repeatedly hit the woman with an axe as she knelt in Muslim prayers, and afterwards stole two gold rings and money.

Most of those executed are beheaded with a sword by career executioners and were “given a kangaroo trial before being summarily killed,” the UNHRC said. Some have been beheaded for “sorcery.”

The UNHRC said Saudi executed 100 people in the first 15 days of 2015.

Still, those numbers are far behind China and leading state terror sponsor Iran, rights groups say.

Saudi Arabia executed 47 men with “terror” connections on Jan. 2 including prominent Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

London-based Amnesty International says the death penalty in anything but the “most serious crimes,” such as premeditated killings, violates international law. It also says Saudi judicial proceedings fall “far short” of global norms of fairness.