RIYADH: Saudi authorities executed on Friday a Pakistani man convicted of rape and murder, in the northwestern town of Tabuk, the interior ministry said.

Amjad Ali Kol was convicted of raping and strangling a woman, before stealing her money, the ministry said in a statement carried on official news agency SPA.

His beheading brings to 33 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year, according to an AFP tally.

In 2012, the kingdom executed 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. The US-based Human Rights Watch put the number at 69.

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