Sri Lankan woman faces ‘beheading’ in Saudi
Beheading with a sword or axe has a long and painful history, because like hanging, in early times when a sword or an axe was always readily available, it was considered a cheap and practical method of execution .
The Greeks and the Romans considered beheading a less dishonourable (and less painful) form of execution than other methods in use at the time. The Roman Empire used beheading for its own citizens whilst crucifying others. Beheading was widely used in Europe and Asia until the 20th century, but now is confined to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen and Iran.
Beheading was used in Britain up to 1747 and was the standard method in Norway (abolished 1905), Sweden (up to 1903), Denmark and Holland (abolished 1870), and was used for some classes of prisoners in France (up until the introduction of the guillotine in 1792) and in Germany up to 1938.
The Greeks and the Romans considered beheading a less dishonourable (and less painful) form of execution than other methods in use at the time. The Roman Empire used beheading for its own citizens whilst crucifying others. Beheading was widely used in Europe and Asia until the 20th century, but now is confined to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen and Iran.
Beheading was used in Britain up to 1747 and was the standard method in Norway (abolished 1905), Sweden (up to 1903), Denmark and Holland (abolished 1870), and was used for some classes of prisoners in France (up until the introduction of the guillotine in 1792) and in Germany up to 1938.
China also used it widely, until the communists came to power and replaced it with shooting in the 20th century. Japan too used beheading up to the end of the 19th century prior to turning to hanging.
- Amnesty International is condemning what it says is a sharp rise in beheadings in Saudi Arabia and is urging authorities in the kingdom to halt executions.
Amnesty said in a Friday (11th June, 2011) statement that the kingdom has executed at least 27 people this year. That's equal to the total number put to death in all of 2010. At least five of those executed this year were foreign nationals.
The rights group says more than 100 others are on death row. Many of them are foreigners.
The group highlighted the case of two brothers sentenced to death in 1998 for murder and at "imminent risk of execution." Amnesty says they had no access to lawyers.
"However strongly the Saudi Arabian authorities support the death penalty, they must at least recognize that no one should be executed after such problematic legal proceedings and commute their death sentences," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery can be executed - usually with a sword., Amnesty International says some defendants are convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under duress, torture or deception. Beheadings are carried out with a sword, with police holding back spectators and making sure no one takes photos. Prisoners, usually sedated, are made to kneel, flanked by clerics and law enforcement officials and facing the victim's family.
"The prisoner now recites verses from the Quran while a government official reads the charges and the verdict," according to an account in Arab News, a Saudi daily. "Halfway through the reading the executioner suddenly nicks the back of the prisoner's neck with his sword, causing him to tense and raise his head involuntarily."
Then, in one swift move, the prisoner is decapitated. Beheadings take place all over Saudi Arabia, usually in a square next to a mosque.]
Riyadh: A woman in Saudi Arabia is poised to be executed by beheading in front of a crowd of people for allegedly killing a baby in her care.
- Amnesty International is condemning what it says is a sharp rise in beheadings in Saudi Arabia and is urging authorities in the kingdom to halt executions.
Amnesty said in a Friday (11th June, 2011) statement that the kingdom has executed at least 27 people this year. That's equal to the total number put to death in all of 2010. At least five of those executed this year were foreign nationals.The rights group says more than 100 others are on death row. Many of them are foreigners.
The group highlighted the case of two brothers sentenced to death in 1998 for murder and at "imminent risk of execution." Amnesty says they had no access to lawyers.
"However strongly the Saudi Arabian authorities support the death penalty, they must at least recognize that no one should be executed after such problematic legal proceedings and commute their death sentences," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery can be executed - usually with a sword., Amnesty International says some defendants are convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under duress, torture or deception. Beheadings are carried out with a sword, with police holding back spectators and making sure no one takes photos. Prisoners, usually sedated, are made to kneel, flanked by clerics and law enforcement officials and facing the victim's family.
"The prisoner now recites verses from the Quran while a government official reads the charges and the verdict," according to an account in Arab News, a Saudi daily. "Halfway through the reading the executioner suddenly nicks the back of the prisoner's neck with his sword, causing him to tense and raise his head involuntarily."
Then, in one swift move, the prisoner is decapitated. Beheadings take place all over Saudi Arabia, usually in a square next to a mosque.]
Riyadh: A woman in Saudi Arabia is poised to be executed by beheading in front of a crowd of people for allegedly killing a baby in her care.
The young maid, Rizana Nafeek, was arrested in May 2005 on charges of murdering a four-month-old baby who was in her care.
Sri Lankan born Nafeek, who alleges she was a teenager at the time of the incident, has vehemently denied all allegations against her, saying that she had desperately tried to save the child, who choked while she was looking after it.
Nafeek's mother Rafeena said that her daughter moved to Saudi Arabia looking for a job, and ended up becoming a domestic worker. She was later asked to take care of the baby, a task which Rafeena thought her daughter was of incapable of handling.
Just weeks into her employment, tragedy struck and the infant choked while he was being fed, she added.
Human rights groups have criticised the Saudi Arabian authorities for misquoting the maid’s date of birth while handling her case.
The authorities have her date of birth as 1982, while her birth certificate states that she was born in 1988, making her 17 at the time of the alleged incident, the Daily Mail reports.
“It would be outrageous if Rizana Nafeek were to be executed for this crime. It appears that she was herself a child at the time and there are real concerns about the fairness of her trial,” Amnesty International’s Middle East director Malcolm Smart said.
