Saudi Executions

Saudi Arabia execution beheading has popped into the news lately.   

The U.N. said the seven thieves were reportedly accused of organizing a criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, raiding and breaking into jewelry stores in 2005.  They were executed on March 13,2013 and all may have wanted to be executed back in 2005 considering the detention and torture/confessions aspect.

Not to be suggesting that that be applied to Saudi diplomats who have 367 unpaid parking fines in Britain alone, but wasting tickets is wasting paper which is wasting trees.  Why not list their auto tag numbers so the meter maids can skip the scrawl?  Since the U.N. is in New York City, a place known for parking problems almost as much so as some universities, why not list them there as well, or simply TOW them away.  Can you picture someone in long flowing robes riding a bicycle to the New World Trade Center?  Perhaps they could take the boat since the NWTC is next to the East River.

Saudi Arabia punishes over half of its overll "criminals" from its foreign national population of maids,house boys,nannies,etc.  This is the group least likely to have the money resources for a defence, and the least social standing, many being Christians and other non-Muslims.

It has been noted that output per worker varies enormously across countries. Why? On an accounting basis, our analysis shows that differences in physical capital and educational attainment can only partially explain the variation in output per worker we find a large amount of variation in the level of the Solow residual across countries. At a deeper level, we document that the differences in capital accumulation, productivity, and therefore output per worker are influenced by differences in institutions and government policies, which economists term social infrastructure. Economists treat social infrastructure as endogenous, determined historically by location and other factors captured in part by language and social mores.  Some countries or States, share the oil revenue with the inhabitant native population.

BTW, in August 2004, only the six countries of Afghanistan, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Serbia-Montenegro, and Vietnam did not have normal trade relations.  This is the equivalent of Most Favored Nation (MFN) status with the United States, even though many countries were not in the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Russia and Saudi Arabia are perhaps the most prominent non-members. (6)(7)

In United Arab Emerates (U.A.R.), an official in the ultra-conservative kingdom said that sword-bearing executioners “are not readily available everywhere and on some occasions, executions were marred by confusion as the executioner was late in showing up at the designated public place”.

The unnamed bureaucrat told the daily Al Youm that due to fast, easy digital communication, an executioners’ tardiness was “causing confusion and sparking speculation and rumours through modern technology”. His statement a remark inferred perhaps that there is public opposition.

In regards to possible reform, a special inter-ministerial committee was investigating a change to a method that utilized for centuries and which Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia claim is based on the Koran or Quran.

There was offered no specific reason for the shortage of executioners, but firing squads have occasionally been used in the past, and the committee has reportedly found that it “does not constitute a religious violation” even though firearms were uncommon when the Koran came to be and may not be mentioned at all in the Koran.

Regional governors have been given the option of the firing squad should sharia (Islam) courts not specifically name beheading as the method.


However the inter-ministerial committee seems to have rejected reformists recommendations within Saudi Arabia to utilize US-style lethal injection for execution in prisons.

The Saudi government so far has no comment on the reports.

The only place in the world that still decapitates criminals, Saudi Arabia is the kingdom or country among the few that stage public executions. But they sell no tickets. In rare instances beheaded corpses are placed on a cross for three days as an extra deterrent.


Executioners wield a traditional scimitar of three and a half to four feet length. The condemned man or woman, blindfolded, is dressed in white garb, and forced to kneel in the direction of Mecca.  The woman's head is probably still covered.  There is no basket to catch the head as when guillotines made executions in France many years ago.

Giving a rare interview in 2003, Mohammed Saad al-Beshi, an executioner, said that decapitation officially is one chop of the large heavy, sharp sword.

“I look after it and sharpen it once in a while, and I make sure to clean it of bloodstains. It’s very sharp. People are amazed how fast it can separate the head from the body,” al-Beshi stated to Arab News.

Saudi Arabia’s rulers faced vociferous international condemnation in 2011 for beheading Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan maid who allegedly choked to death a baby she was caring for.
(4)
Other countries probably thought it was "crib death" when babies expire and there is no autopsy to determine the cause of death.  These are the least expensive maids, usually going for around U.S. $300 (or 9,000 baht) a month or RP 9,000 when maids of other countries contract for up to RP 35,000. Visitors at a certain site will think this is a slave purchase!

As for how many nannies country by country, The New Paper of Bangkok. Thailand, has determined that Sri Lanka is the fifth biggest source of maids for Saudi Arabia, after Indonesia (103,000), the Philippines (70,000), India (15,000) and Myanmar (10,000).

In abject horror, Sri Lanka banned women under 25 from applying for employment in Saudi Arabia after authorities beheaded a 24-year-old maid in January of 2013.  She had allegedly smothered the child in 2005 after an argument with the child's mother.  Another account says baby was strangled.(1)

"As a first step, we are raising the age limit (on women going abroad to work as maids) to 25," stated Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella of Sri Lanka.

"We will gradually move towards a total ban on our women going abroad to do low-paying jobs," Rambukwella added, as reported in The New Paper on Monday, January 28,2013.

The new rules are confusing for many seeking maids not so difficult for house boys. (3)

After confining the lady to prison apparently without a trial, the kingdom authorities in Riyadh beheaded Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafik on January 9 in the town of Dawadmy.  She was a teen of 17 when the baby died. (2)

Amnesty International claims the passport Rizana Nafeek used to enter Saudi Arabia in May 2005 listed February 1982, as her date of birth but her actual birth certificate had 1988, which would have made her only 17 years old at the time of the child’s death. (2)

Condemned women in Saudi Arabia were executed by firing squad until the 1990s, when the kingdom authorities insisted condemned women should be beheaded as are the men.

Recently, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has executed 70 to 80 people per year, and is among the top five countries to enforce the death penalty, along with China, Iran, North Korea and the United States. 

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the largest variety of crimes punishable by death, including murder, rape, sodomy, robbery, theft (after four offenses), false prophecy and witchcraft.  Oddly enough, one of these crimes is a traditional "insult" for homosexuals found to be living or still warm after being murdered in Libya and it is not robbery or theft.  The last two are very controversial in upwards of 100 countries.

Apparantly these seven men beheaded in Saudi Arabia either offended in a BIG way before "bagging" their limit of four thefts. (5)

The high level deliberations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia came belatedly for Khaled bin Hamad, who was decapitated in the first three months of 2013, according to the official Saudi Press Agency, for knifing to death another male during an altercation or heated argument. Khaled bin Hamad became the 18th person to the executed in the country in 2013. In several countries, such a killing is second or third degree murder and fetches prison time.

Modest reforms have been introduced under the rule of King Abdullah, such as women being given the vote in future municipal elections which is the only public polls or chance to vote publically in the kingdom.  In 2009, a further education institute (A high school or college) became the first co-educational education institution to open its doors to women in spite of strong clerical opposition.  Apparently there are one sex-only educational institutions in most of 50 plus Islam countries and very few co-educational with BOTH sexes under the same roof.  Perhaps there would be fewer teacher/student scandals in the West if more schools were not co-educational.  Problem is, teachers would most likely be required to be one sex, the same one as all the students, which would not bode well with teachers' unions.



The official Saudi New agency, SPA issued a statement on behalf of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Interior leading off with a Quranic verse from the chapter "The Table Spread."

"The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter."
The U.N. special rapporteur (reporter?) on torture, Juan E. Mendez, said there are also grave concerns that the seven male (alleged) thieves were tortured during detention and forced to sign confessions.


"This is not the only in breach of Saudi Arabia's international obligations under international law, which imposes an outright prohibition on torture, it is also in breach of the government's international obligation under the Convention against Torture that explicitly forbids the use of all forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confessions or acquiring information," Juan E. Mendez stated.



(1)http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/international/saudi-arabia-beheads-sri-lankan-maid-for-strangling-baby-1-2727673

(2)http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/international/saudi-arabia-beheads-sri-lankan-maid-for-strangling-baby-1-2727673

(3)http://www.expatwoman.com/qatar/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=163563

(4)http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/333016/saudi-beheading-brings-nanny-ban

(5)http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/13/world/meast/saudi-executions-beheading

(6)http://www.nber.org/reporter/fall04/rose.html

(7) http://www.itds.treas.gov/mfn.html

(8)http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/tabloid-on-saturday/wadjda-aiming-for-change-without-conflict-1.1118608

(9)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/venice-film-festival/9517263/Wadjda-director-Saudi-women-have-to-fight.html






Is this evidence of "prudery"?Saudi Arabia closed 100 lingerie shops with male sales staff by 16 Sep 2012.  Choices narrowed to "out-grown tighty whities and boxer shorts" found in the residence?
   

They want the trade so Ikea airbrushed women out of Saudi catalogue by 01 Oct 2012.   


    Wadjda director in 03 Sep 2012 stated Saudi women 'have to fight'. 

HMM.  Appears early bicycle design allowed for rider's dress since crossbar would allow knees and ankles to be seen which was not socially acceptable.

    Saudi Arabia foils 'terror cells'
    26 Aug 2012

Rand Paul: We Have (STINKIN') 'De Facto Amnesty’

Report: Obamacare Pushes Premiums Up 200%....then many notice $10,000 deductable that causes them to cancel the pricey soak-the-rich insurance.  Then there is the matter of the FINE which gives you NO coverage which has dubious, arbitrary value anyway.  The important thing is that the government gets the money, other people get the use of the insurance.  Your office is calling Supreme Court Justice Roberts saying,"Hell is over-heating while you keep it waiting for your sorry rear end."

The first Saudi Arabian woman to direct a feature film, Haifaa Al Mansour hailed by some as a pioneer.  Waad Mohammad,  plays the lead in her film Wadjda, and Abdulrahman Al Gohani is featured.



"Wadjda", debuted in the Middle East with a gala screening at the Dubai International Film Festival attended by Haifaa along with child stars Waad Mohammad and Abdullrahman Al Gohani who play lead roles in the film.

"Wadjda", Haifaa Al Mansour's film, has German funding and a $100,000 (Dh367,320) prize from the former Abu Dhabi-based Middle East International Film Festival in 2006,  uncovers the role of women in Saudi society, a place where cinema theatres are banned.  Perhaps drawing a bit on the popularity of "Slumdog Millionaire", Waad, a tall, thin girl, plays the title character who is a fiesty and rebellious sub-teen who enters a local Quran-reading competition, intending to spend the prize money to buy herself a bicycle.  They are depicted in western attire with a bicycle. (8)

Wadjda is the first film to have been entirely filmed within Saudi Arabia mostly in the home and at school but in some public areas,Haifaa Al Mansour had to direct from her production van via walkie-talkie to avoid being seen.

Other controversial people include:

Adonis, Rukhsana Ahmad, Yasser Alaskary, Meena Alexander, Hugh Beach, John Berger, Phillip Bobbit, Aaron Breitbart, Richard Burge, Nelcya Delanoe, Mitchell Cohen, Timothy Garton Ash, Paul Gilroy, Ralph Giordano, Todd Gitlin, Danny Glover, Günter Grass, Susan Griffin, Shusha Guppy, Denis Halliday, David Hare, David Hayes, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Faleh Jabar, Ghada Karmi, Muqtedar Khan, Satish Kumar, John le Carré , Sonja Linden, Frederico Mayor, Ian McEwan, Patrick Mono, Edwin Morgan, Ahmad Mukhtar, Friedemann Müller, Njabulo S. Ndebele, Ernst Nolte, Bahman Nirumand, Joseph Nye, Ben Okri, Nuha Al-Radi, Anita Roddick, Alexander Rondeli, Jacqueline Rose, Salman Rushdie, José Saramago, Donald Sassoon, Roger Scruton, Bapsi Sidhwa, Hazhir Teimourian, Sulak Sivaraksa, Lindsay Waters, Eyal Weizman, Arnold Wesker, Andreas Whittam-Smith, Judith Williamson


Mombasa, Zanzibar (now Zambia)  was where Barack Barry Soerto Harrison J. Bounel Hussain Obama was born.   Zimbabwe,  Chad, Haiti, Gaza Strip,Liberia,Congo, Democratic Republic of the blood jewels,Sierra Leone,where British freed the slaves captured on ships,Suriname,Nigeria,Mozambique,Swaziland,Burundi,Niger,Comoros,Honduras,Rwanda,Guatemala,Namibia,Malawi,Senegal, São Tomé and Príncipe,Tajikistan,South Africa,Kenya, Madagascar, sounds like Al Gore got drunk and named it,Eritrea,Lesotho where jeans are made, Nicaragua,Cameroon,Burkina Faso,Guinea,Djibouti,Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast, sounds like it had elephants)Yemen,Djibouti,East Timor,Angola,Sudan,Bangladesh,Mauritania,Kyrgyzstan,Benin,Mali,Mongolia,Tanzania,Papua New Guinea,Ethiopia,Peru,Venezuela,Afghanistan,Ukraine,General Yoweri Museveni rules Uganda, Belize,Ecuador,Philippines, Burma (Myanmar),Western Sahara,
Cambodia,Togo,Georgia,Bolivia, El Salvador, Botswana, Dominica,
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Russia,Ablania,Slovenia,Syria,United Kingdom,Hungary,Indonesia,
Denmark,United States,Azerbaijan
Vietnam,Netherlands,Thailand,
Canada,Bahamas,Greenland,
Mauritius,Tunisia,Lybia,Ireland,
Switzerland,France,Austria,Malasia,Lithuania,China,Taiwan,UruguaySerbia and Montenegro,Andorra,
Kazakhstan,Tuvalu,South Sudan,
Seychelles,Singapore,Qatar,
St. Vincent & The Grenadines,Scotland,Wales,St. ,Liechtenstein,Luxembourg,Cyprus,Guinea-Bissau,Gabon,Kitts & Nevis,Palau,Nauru,Northern Ireland,North Korea,Marshall Islands,Micronesia,Central African Republic,Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro rules.

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