A Saudi prince has been executed after he was convicted of murder, a punishment that’s being seen by some as an attempt to assure Saudis that all are equal before law at a time of unprecedented change in the conservative kingdom.

Prince Turki bin Saud Al Kabir was found guilty of shooting dead another man after a brawl. The sentence was carried out Tuesday after a royal order. While it’s unclear if the timing was related to reforms in the kingdom, what’s certain is that capital punishment for a royal is rare. One of the last known executions was that of a prince who killed his uncle, King Faisal, in 1975.

The announcement came as many Saudis come to terms with a new era of relative austerity following decades of shared prosperity. The kingdom is struggling to rein in its ballooning finances after a prolonged oil price slump and has already suspended bonus payments for state employees and cut energy subsidies. In a sign of how times are changing, Saudi Arabia is planning a $17.5 billion bond sale, the biggest ever by an emerging market country.

It may be a “way to say everyone’s equal in the eyes of the law,” Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of London-based consulting firm Cornerstone Global Associates, said by phone from Dubai. “There are reforms that are taking place on the political, economic and social fronts and obviously a judicial reform is going to have to be part and parcel” of that, he said.

The Interior Ministry, which announced the death in a statement, didn’t provide further details.

Death Row

Convicted murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and armed robbers -- both locals and foreigners -- are often beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Death sentences for murder can be put aside if the family of the victim accepts blood money and the killing is unrelated to other crimes, such as drug trafficking or terrorism.

While the execution may be aimed at showing a fairer kingdom, the timing could also be coincidental.

Adam Coogle, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, which campaigns against capital punishment, said it’s not “clear that this execution stemming from a four-year-old murder is tied” to any specific reform effort.

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