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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

Man in Killing of Navajo Nation Girl Set to Be Sentenced

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Tom Begaye Jr.
A man who pleaded guilty to murder and sexual assault in the death of an 11-year-old girl on the largest American Indian reservation is set to be sentenced.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to the murder and sexual assault in the death of an 11-year-old girl on the largest American Indian reservation is set to be sentenced.

Tom Begaye is scheduled Friday to receive life in prison for the May 2016 killing on the Navajo Nation that prompted calls to expand the Amber Alert system and the death penalty to U.S. tribal communities.

Begaye, 28, was arrested on May 4, 2016, on allegations that he kidnapped Ashlynne Mike and her brother from near their Lower Fruitland home and drove them to an area about 6 miles south of the Shiprock pinnacle.

At the pinnacle, Begaye is accused of sexually molesting Ashlynne Mike and bludgeoning her to death with a tire iron, according to court documents.

Ian Mike was released and found several hours later wandering along Navajo Route 13 by a motorist.

Begaye was indicted on May 24, 2016, on six counts, including first-degree murder, kidnapping resulting in death, two counts of aggravated sexual abuse resulting in death and kidnapping of a minor.

Begaye pleaded not guilty to the six charges during a June 7, 2016, hearing and changed his plea to guilty as part of a plea agreement, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.

As part of the plea agreement, Begaye agreed to serve life in prison without the possibility of release.

Ashlynne was reported missing, but an Amber Alert didn't go out until the next day.

Her body was later found in an area near the Arizona-New Mexico border.

The Navajo Nation, like many Native American tribes, outlaws the death penalty.

Begaye pleaded guilty in August.

Source: The Associated Press, October 20, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: New Mexico, USA
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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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