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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

Saudi Arabia inaugurates 2015 with a beheading

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Public execution in Saudi Arabia (file photo)
RIYADH: A Saudi convicted of drug trafficking became the first person executed in 2015 in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom which beheaded 87 people last year.

Malik bin Said al-Sayaari was put to the sword in the Al-Hasa district of Eastern Province after a repeat conviction for hashish smuggling, the interior ministry said.

Saudi Arabia has stepped up its use of the death penalty despite repeated appeals from the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.

Last year's tally marked a significant increase on the 78 executions recorded in 2013.

Rape, murder, apostasy, homosexuality and armed robbery as well as drug trafficking are punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, January 1, 2015

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Location: Saudi Arabia
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