Notably missing from this report is any plea on his behalf from Sudan. If Sudan indeed stood on the sidelines, it would certainly be in keeping with the Sudanese president’s own statement that “Sharia law has always stipulated that one must whip, cut, or kill.”

“Saudi Arabia beheads Sudanese ‘sorcerer’,” from Agence France-Presse and NOW Lebanon, September 19:

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sudanese man by sword in the western city of Medina on Monday after he was convicted of practicing sorcery, the Interior Ministry announced.

Abdul Hamid al-Fakki “practiced witchcraft and sorcery,” which are illegal under Saudi Arabia’s Islamic sharia law, said a ministry statement carried by state news agency SPA.

When reached for comment, a man claiming to have been turned into a newt said, “I got better.”

In October last year, Amnesty International said it had appealed to King Abdullah in a letter to commute Fakki’s death sentence.

His execution brings to 42 the number of people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally based on official and human rights group reports.

In June, London-based watchdog Amnesty International called on Saudi Arabia to stop applying the death penalty, saying there had been a significant rise in the number of executions in the previous six weeks.

It said 15 people were executed in May alone.

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