On Tuesday Saudi Arabia
beheaded a rapist and two murderers, bringing the total to thirty-eight, the
number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year.
Saudi Mohammed
bin Ali bin Mohammed al-Bishi was convicted of raping his victim at gunpoint,
the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press
Agency.
“He also committed a number
of armed robberies causing panic amongst the society. He had entered a number
of homes by force and tried to kidnap and rape women and children,” the
statement said. Bishi was sentenced to death “as punishment and to serve as a
deterrent to others”. Authorities carried out the sentence in the south-western
region of Asir.
In a separate case, Hamoud
bin Salih bin Falih al-Zubi was executed in Riyadh for gunning down a fellow
Saudi during a brawl. And another native of the kingdom, Falih bin Misnad bin
Rabea al-Inzi, was beheaded in Qassim region for a fatal stabbing. Drug
trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by
death under the Gulf kingdom’s strict version of Islamic sharia law.
Amnesty International said
in its annual report last week that death sentences are often imposed “after
unfair trials”. The London-based watchdog said some defendants claimed to have
been tortured or “otherwise coerced or misled into making false confessions”
before trial. The kingdom executed 87 people last year, up from 78 in 2013,
according to an AFP count.
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