Saudi Arabia executed a citizen convicted of murder on Thursday, bringing the total number of death sentences to 82 this year in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Mohammed al-Khaweir al-Qahtani was found guilty of shooting dead Hussein al-Shayeb al-Qahtani following a dispute, the interior ministry said.

The British government has been urged by human rights group to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to halt their brutal use of capital punishment.

Saudi Arabia executed a citizen convicted of murder on Thursday, brining the total number of death sentences to 82 this year in the ultra-conservative kingdom

He was executed in the southwestern city of Abha, a ministry statement published by the official SPA news agency said.

Most people put to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword and the grisly event can often draw a small crowd.

The executions so far this year include 47 for 'terrorism' carried out in a single day on January 2.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia executed 153 people, most of them for drug trafficking or murder, according to an AFP count.

Saudi Arabia has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death

Human rights group Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia last year was the highest for two decades.