RIYADH // Saudi Arabia carried out its first execution in five weeks on Thursday after a pause for Ramadan, beheading one of its citizens convicted of a double murder.

Sayir Al Rasheedi was found guilty of fatally shooting two Saudi brothers in a dispute, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing the interior ministry.

Authorities carried out the sentence against him in the Qassim region.

SPA had reported no executions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Eid Al Fitr holiday.

The latest beheading brings the number of executions in the kingdom so far this year to 103, a sharp increase on the 87 recorded during the whole of 2014, according to AFP tallies.

Under the kingdom’s sharia legal code, drug trafficking, rape, murder, armed robbery and apostasy are all punishable by death.

The interior ministry cited deterrence as a reason for carrying out the punishment.

* Agence France-Presse