Beheadings, not crucifixion, for alleged Saudi thieves

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Seven Saudi men convicted of theft, looting and armed robbery were beheaded on Wednesday, according to the country's official news agency, more than a week after their families and a rights group appealed to the king for clemency.

The executions took place in Abha, a city in the southern region of Asir, the Saudi Press Agency said. The south has been marginalized and suffered discrimination by the powerful central region where the capital, Riyadh, and the holy shrines of Mecca and Medina are located.

The seven were arrested in 2006 and received death sentences in 2009, a Saudi newspaper reported at the time. The case was back in focus after Human Rights Watch earlier this month called for the sentences to be canceled because the men were juveniles at the time of their arrest.

One of the men told The Associated Press in early March that he was only 15 when he was arrested as part of a ring that stole jewelry in 2004 and 2005. Nasser al-Qahtani said he was tortured to confess and had no access to lawyers.

Al-Qahtani said that during the years-long trial, he only faced the judge three times and when the men tried to complain to the judge about the torture or show torture marks on their bodies, they were ignored. He also said the judge never assigned him a lawyer.

• Report: Saudi Arabia may end practice of beheadings
• Saudi Arabia postpones crucifixion, firing squad executions
• Pleas for help from Saudi prisoners facing execution by crucifixion, firing squad for armed robbery

The original sentences called for death by firing squad and crucifixion. However, SPA said on Wednesday that the seven were beheaded. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said three men with swords carried out the executions.

The oil-rich kingdom follows a strict implementation of Islamic law, or Shariah, under which people convicted of murder, rape or armed robbery can be executed, usually by sword.

Saudi Arabia has executed 23 people so far this year, including the seven men on Wednesday. Last year it executed 76 people and in 2011, 79.

Also, several people were reported crucified in Saudi Arabia last year. Human rights groups have condemned crucifixions, including cases in which people were beheaded and then crucified. In 2009, Amnesty International condemned such executions as "the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment."

On March 4, Human Rights Watch appealed to King Abdullah not to execute the seven men and said there was "strong evidence" that they did not get a fair trial.

"It is high time for the Saudis to stop executing child offenders and start observing their obligations under international human rights law," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at HRW.

The following day, the king ordered a one-week suspension until the case was reviewed.

On Sunday, a Saudi paper reported that the government is looking into formally dropping public beheadings as a method of execution and instead considering death by a firing squad as an alternative. There have also been calls in the kingdom to replace public beheadings with lethal injections carried out in prisons.

The Washington-based Institute of Gulf Affairs, which campaigned for the suspension of the executions of the seven men, recently said in a note to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that one of the reasons the seven were sentenced to death was that "they hail from the south, a region that is heavily marginalized by the Saudi monarchy, which views them as lower class citizens."

[Bunny_Olesen]

oh WELL then, that's cool. Beheading instead of firing squad.
TITLE IS COMPLETELY INACCURATE!

Original sentence was FIRING SQUAD and THEN crucifiction of the body.
Whether or not crucifiction is still a part of the sentence, the title SHOULD READ - BEHEADINGS NOT FIRING SQUAD for Saudi Thieves.(not ALLEGED thieves, they were found guilty and sentenced)

WHY DO YOU SAY ALLEGED? TRIAL IS OVER! Do you EVER stop saying 'alleged'?

[mjlewis6]

Old Bandar Bush still has his American counterpart in old George Dubya...whose four years and 30 days in office (Governor two term who quit right after winning a second term for which we still have RICK PERRY to this day as Governor....)

Yep, old George ramped up the KILLING MACHINE in Texas for executions during his BENEVOLENT CONSERVATISM dispatching HUNDREDS each year he was Governor of Texas. Yes, there is something to using a sword in Saudi Arabia that makes it barbaric, but how incredibly impersonal and cold to just KILL in the name of Justice and a higher morality code?

Really don't think Texas should be in the murder business even when convincing 12 jurors of the guilt of someone in a death penalty case.
We have had President Bush prosecute a war in which even the whole country was misled into a war and thousands perished... over the possibility of a threat that was overblown for oil and profits. War Crimes Bush will have a Presidential Library in Dallas, but you can be sure the shoe that was thrown at him in Iraq is not part of the permanent display. Pity that not one of his executive decisions in his book is about his quickness at ducking the journalistic shoe hurl. We have been stuck with his Rick Perry ever since, and is hardly a better governor having stuck Texas with Toll Roads for the next 30 years or more....

[mecury69]

"Secondly, America has NEVER gone to war for oil or profits."

Dumbest statement of the year.

If not for the oil, our foreign policy wouldn't give two sh*ts about the Middle East. You're delusional.

[Bunny_Olesen]

Yeah, cause Obama is SOOOOOO different.

[inketolstoy]

Glad to see Saudi Arabia trying to catch up with most of the rest of the world and jumping into the fifteenth century.

[dougmaz]

Saudi Arabia: earth's anus.

[mecury69]

Mexico is what came out of earth's anus.

[Bunny_Olesen]

I always thought it was Pakistan, our other 'ally'.

[netjunkie1]

That Shariah law is not part of the teachings of Mohammed. It is a 200 year old misinterpretation by sheepherders, and should be reformed.

[mtracy99]

The corrupt, sadistic Saudi dictatorship must be overthrown and democracy established.

[Bunny_Olesen]

That's completely false. Mohammed sanctioned and enforced execution for many crimes, including the crime of not being muslim.

[mentalist65]

Barbarians.

[mtracy99]

During 9/11 Boy George was reading "The Pet Goat" to children, while Dead-Man-Walking Cheney was at the scene of the crime (in the White House bunker) conducting scheduled, simulated war-games to fool NORAD and the FAA into standing down. Isn't it time we put these neocons on trial for treason and mass murder?

[tunafisheater]

It really isn't such a bad idea, he keeps law and order , and it gives criminals something to think about. In the West we all are too lax regarding punishment for rapist ,thieves and robbers. In the end people will accept Islam as a means of law and order.

Is not such a bad idea it encourages law an order. I bet they have safe streets. In the West we glorify criminals in movies and on TV. Small wonder our crime rate is high. A high crime rate encourages immorality. If they can get away with it so can I type of attitude becomes normal...

[mtracy99]

The CIA attempts to overthrow the democratically elected government in Venezuela, while the US supports the thug regime in Saudi Arabia. Obviously, US foreign policy is determined by oil and Israel.

[netjunkie1]

Maybe you didn't get the part where some were teenagers, were tortured, were denied lawyers, and did not have due process to begin with.
If that's what you like, go to Arabia, and see how long you last.

[AOCGUY]

PSOPO replies: We do not listen to anyone dumb enough and looney enough to post these things

Well APPARANTLY despite your protestation to the contrary you not only do listen you reply as well. Maybe it is you who is dumb and looney - hmmmm!

[AOCGUY]

Freedomfighter53 says: Dictator Obama ...sent $250 billion to Saudi Arabia.

OK dumba-s, first it was $250 million (not billion) in foreign aid that was allocated by Congress and it went to Egypt not Saudi Arabia. Title X does not allow the USG to send aid to Saudi Arabia.

[HM8432]

Not that I have a problem with Obama, but how is sending $250 million to Egypt any better!?

We need to be spending money on our own country instead of exporting it to countries that hate our guts.

[mtracy99]

What we've spent in Egypt is peanuts compared to the Trillion dollars we've blown off in the Bush/Cheney military adventures in the Middle East.

[AOCGUY]

Freedomfighter53 says: ... why can't we do it to the Obama administration for murder, rape and treason?...


Did you just threaten our elected leadership? I do believe that is a felony.

[PSOPO]

A felony and someone who should be arrested right now. You two are really demented. Yooray for the looney internet.

[Bunny_Olesen]

No, it wasn't a threat, it was a question on why a corrupt, law breaking, constitution ignoring, treasonous leader has not been arrested for treason, which carries a possible death sentence with it.