Saudi Arabia Beheaded 59 People So Far This Year

I’m sure those people deserved their beheadings because Saudi Arabia is our ally. Where is the outrage from the media mouthpieces? Just because 17 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia is just a coincidence. They are on our side. Right?

Via Vice News

By Tom Breakwell

The string of beheadings of American and British hostages at the hands of the Islamic State has drawn horror and intense media scrutiny the world over, redoubling international determination to defeat the extremist group.

But with IS dominating headlines, it is easy to forget that Saudi Arabia, a member of the UN’s Human Rights Council and a close ally of America in the war against the Islamist fighters, is itself routinely carrying out the practice of beheading.

Since January of this year, 59 people have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia under the country’s antiquated legal system based primarily around sharia law.

Last month saw Saudi Arabia behead at least 8 people — twice the number of Western hostages who have so far featured in IS’s barbaric execution videos. In August those executed by Riyadh were sentenced to death for crimes such as apostasy, adultery and “sorcery.” In one case, four members of the same family were executed for “receiving large quantities of hashish,” a sentence imposed, according to Amnesty International, on the basis of “forced confessions extracted through torture.”

The human rights group has reported a “disturbing surge” in executions in the kingdom. Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program, said that many are executed for petty crimes, highlighting the frequent and seemingly casual imposition of such sentences.

“The use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia is so far removed from any kind of legal parameters that it’s almost hard to believe,” Boumedouha remarked.

Mohammed Saad-al Beshi, a Saudi state executioner, told Arab News in 2003 that he felt that he was carrying out “God’s work” and that “when prisoners get to the execution square, their strength drains away.”

The practice is not confined to adults. According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia executed at least one person under the age of 18 this year, a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The manner by which confessions are extracted also paints a bleak picture, activists say. “The executions of people accused of petty crimes and on the basis of ‘confessions’ extracted through torture has become shamefully common in Saudi Arabia,” Boumedouha said.

The UN has sought to distance itself from Saudi Arabia on the issue, despite the membership of Saudi Arabia upon the UN Human Rights Council, a position it was elected to by the UN General Assembly.

In September, Juan Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, remarked that “beheadings as a form of execution is cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and prohibited under international law under all circumstances.”

Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council have also been quick to denounce the kingdom’s brutal practice, commenting that “the practice of beheading, especially after unfair trials for crimes that may not carry the death penalty under international law, is shocking and grossly inappropriate.”

However, as an oil rich Western ally seen as key to the US-led offensive against IS, there remains little hope, at least within the short term, of large scale international condemnation.

5
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
mabuk
mabuk

Have a peek at what happens to their foreign guest workers, particularly maids — first abused by their slave owners (they are just property to these guys) and then later abused by their “justice system”:
—–
More than 45 foreign maids are facing execution on death row in Saudi Arabia, the Observer has learned, amid growing international outrage at the treatment of migrant workers.

The startling figure emerged after Saudi Arabia beheaded a 24-year-old Sri Lankan domestic worker, Rizana Nafeek, in the face of appeals for clemency from around the world.

The exact number of maids on death row is almost certainly higher, but Saudi authorities do not publish official figures. Indonesians are believed to account for the majority of those facing a death sentence. Human rights groups say 45 Indonesian women are on death row, and five have exhausted the legal process.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/13/saudi-arabia-treatment-foreign-workers

overthecliff

Mexico is a failed state with more beheading than Saudi Arabia. I suggest that when we observe dangerous uncivilized behavior in a country, we shouldn’t go there . We shouldn’t let them come here either.

Persnickety
Persnickety

I think we should send Congress to visit Saudi Arabia on a fact-finding mission. In plain dress without any government or diplomatic papers. And with a stash of illegal drugs in the luggage of each and every one of them. This would solve several problems at once.

flash
flash

When ISIS takes control of the Iraqi oil fields, they’ll become one our most favored and guiltless allies just like the Saudi butchers ….oil has that magical sort of cleansing effect on the crime of heinous murder.

protecting our freedom they said…” Finally, I have to say one thing, when people have thanked me for”Serving my country”, I cringe! What does that even mean, do people even know? So I “served” came home and live in a country that according to the freedom index http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking ) ranks between Bahrain and Estonia, I now have to pay some of the highest taxes in the world, in an environment of growing regulations,militarized and corrupt police, marginal and expensive education system, crazy healthcare regulations, I can’t even legally buy the light bulbs I want!!!! So what does it mean to “Serve my country”?Perhaps its code for: Enslaving yourself and innocent people everywhere.”https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/iraq-vet-we-saw-the-truth/

Westcoaster
Westcoaster

We should send Dick Cheney over there as our ambassador. He would be right at home with all the torture mongers.

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading