BEIRUT -- Prince Faisal Bin Musaed was executed today for assassinating his uncle, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Radio said.
The broadcast at 5 p.m. (10 a.m. EDT) said the execution had been carried out 30 minutes earlier. It did not say how the prince was killed, although the traditional form of execution in Saudi Arabia is by beheading.
An earlier radio announcement of the prince's secret trial and conviction had given short notice of the execution, carried out in front of the Al Hokm palace in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
The prince, who was 27, shot his uncle to death March 25 at the royal palace in Riyadh, where King Faisal was holding court on the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.
The traditional form of Islamic execution is beheading by a sword in the public square after midday prayers. Since the assassination, crowds had gathered most Fridays in the belief that the prince would be executed.
The announcement of the secret trial and the swift execution followed a . decision by a panel of Saudi medical Malpractice that the prince was not insane when he gunned down Faisal in the apparently motiveless killing.
The government had announced at the of the shooting that the assassin was The young prince has been jailed since the assassination.
Saudi officials had said several tunes that the trial was being postponed while tried to determine whether the prince had acted alone or whether he been the gunman in a plot, perhaps foreign connections.
High-ranking Saudi authorities have, however, publicly ruled out the notion of involvement of others.
Radio Riyadh said the court's decision to execute the prince has been approved King Khaled, Faisal's brother and successor.
