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Public beheading by the sword in Saudi Arabia (file photo) |
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia on Sunday executed an Ethiopian for killing a Saudi woman while she was praying.
“Jinat Damti Farid, an Ethiopian woman, was executed in Taif Governorate in the Makkah region today for killing Ghaliah Bint Eidha Bin Saeed Al Harthi, a Saudi woman, by striking her with an axe on her head and back several times while she was praying, then taking two gold rings from her hand, and cash,” the interior ministry said in a statement.
“The General Court convicted the murderer, and the sentence was endorsed by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. A royal order was issued to execute the sentence,” the ministry said.
The statement added that the Saudi government was fully committed to upholding security, ensuring justice and carrying out the orders against anyone who attacked innocent people and shed blood.
Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, where the interior ministry says the death penalty is a deterrent to crime.
Amnesty says Saudi Arabia had the world's 3rd-highest number of executions last year, after China and Iran.
Under the kingdom's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape, homosexuality and apostasy are all punishable by death.
Source: Gulf News, AFP, January 10, 2016
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