By Glen Carey - Oct 9, 2011 1:01 AM GMT+0700
Saudi Arabia beheaded eight Bangladeshi nationals in public yesterday for the murder of an Egyptian citizen in 2007, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing an Interior Ministry statement.
The Egyptian was killed during a robbery of a warehouse in Riyadh, the news service said, citing the ministry’s statement. Three other Bangladeshis were sentenced to prison terms and flogging for their roles in the crime.
Saudi Arabia, where religious police patrol shopping centers and cinemas are prohibited, enforces Islamic law. The kingdom usually beheads or sentences people to lashings for murder, rape and drug-smuggling. The Sunni Muslim-majority country and member of the Group of 20 nations has been criticized by international human rights groups.
Two other Saudi nationals were executed in the northern city of Tabuk yesterday, bringing the total number of executions to 10, London-based Amnesty International said in a statement on its website yesterday. At least 58 people have been executed in the country this year, including 20 foreign nationals, Amnesty said.
“Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial and news of these recent multiple executions is deeply disturbing,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa, said in the statement.
The number of executions had been declining, dropping to 27 people in 2010 and 69 in 2009 from about 102 the year earlier and 158 in 2007, according to Amnesty.
To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Dubai at gcarey8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment