Paralysis, eye gouging, amputation, crucifixion: The Medieval punishments faced by criminals in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia continues to use barbaric methods of execution claiming they are justified by the Quran and its traditions

Saudi Arabia has some of the most barbaric and bizarre punishments in the world. Public beheadings, amputations, eye for an eye retribution and flogging all form part of the justice system.

As The Sun reported this week, a murderer was crucified after being found guilty of repeatedly stabbing a woman, his body hung on a cross after execution.

Crown Prince Salman wants to make the desert kingdom a tech savvy 21st century nation and has introduced liberal reforms.

Yet for all his ambitions, the country still has the trappings of one caught in a altogether different era, particularly when it comes to its justice system.

Saudi Arabia retains the death penalty for a large number of offences including drug trafficking and "sorcery" as well as murder.

The majority of death sentences are carried out in public by beheading, drawing comparisons with the shocking brutality of the Islamic State.

The system is based on Shariah law, which the Saudis say is rooted in Islamic tradition and the Quran.

While they insist trials are conducted to the strictest standards of fairness, evidence has emerged from the country to suggest the opposite.

Trials are reported to have lasted a day and confessions extracted under torture.

The country has no written penal code and no code of criminal procedure and judicial procedure.

That allows courts wide powers to determine what constitutes a criminal offence and what sentences crimes deserve.

The only means of appeal is directly to the King, who decides whether the condemned lives or dies.

The list of punishments makes for grim reading.

Beheading

Last year the kingdom year carried out 146 executions, the 3rd highest rate in the world behind China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.

In the first 4 months of this year alone it has carried out 86 beheadings, 1/2 of them for non-violent crimes such as drugs offences.

There has been a surge in executions since last month, with at least 27 people executed in July alone, say Amnesty International.

Beheading remains the most common form of execution and the sentence traditionally carried out in a public square on a Friday after prayers.

Deera Square in the centre of the capital Riyadh is known locally as "Chop Chop Square".

Warning: Graphic Content

Public beheading in Saudi Arabia

The work maybe grim but country's chief executioner appeared to take pride in his work.

After visiting the victim's family to see if they want to forgive the prisoner, they are then taken for beheading.

"When they get to the execution square, their strength drains away," the BBC reported Muhammad Saad al-Beshi as saying.

"Then I read the execution order, and at a signal I cut the prisoner's head off.".

A recent surge in rate of executions led to ads placed for 8 executioners on the civil service jobs website.

In Saudi Arabia, the practice of "crucifixion" refers to the court-ordered public display of the body after execution, along with the separated head if beheaded.

In one case pictures on social media appearing to show 5 decapitated bodies hanging from a horizontal pole with their heads wrapped in bags.

The beheading and "crucifixion" took place in front of the University of Jizan where students were taking exams takes place in a public square to act as a deterrent.

Paralysis

The ability of courts to decide for themselves sentences that fit the crime has led to sentences of "qisas" or retribution.

The most high profile example was that of Ali al-Khawahir, who was 14 when stabbed a friend in the neck, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

10 years later was sentenced to be paralysed unless he paid a million Saudi riyals to the victim.

At the time Amnesty International said the sentence was "utterly shocking" even for Saudi Arabia.

In such cases, the victim can demand the punishment be carried out, request financial compensation or grant a conditional or unconditional pardon.

Stoning

Stoning remains a punishment for adultery for women in Saudi Arabia.

According to 1 witness, the accused are put into holes and then have rocks tipped on them from a truck.

In 2015 a married 45-year-old woman, originally from Sri Lanka, who was working as a maid in Riyadh, was sentenced to death by stoning.

Her partner, who was single and also from Sri Lanka, was given a punishment of 100 lashes after being found guilty of the same offence.

Eye Gouging

Abd ul-Latif Noushad, an Indian citizen, was sentenced to have his right eye gouged out in retribution for his role in a brawl in which a Saudi citizen was injured.

He worked at a petrol station and got into an altercation about a jump lead a customer wanted a refund for and in the ensuing struggle struck the other man on the head, hitting his eye.

A court of appeal in Riyadh has reportedly merely asked whether the Saudi man would accept monetary compensation instead, according to Human Rights Watch.

On September 16, 2004, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported that a court in Tabuk ordered the right eye of Muhammad `Ayid Sulaiman al-Fadili al-Balawi to be gouged out.

The court gave him the option of paying compensation within one year and it was reported he had raised the 1.4 million riyals required.

Another Saudi newspaper, ArabNews, reported on December 6 that a court had recently sentenced an Egyptian man in to having his eye gouged.

He was accused of throwing acid in the face of another man, who subsequently lost his eyesight.

Flogging

Those convicted of insulting Islam can also expect to be flogged.

In a case that has brought international condemnation, blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes as well as 10 years behind bars.

Video shows a crowd cheering as the first 50 lashes of his sentence was carried out, an ordeal which his wife Ensaf Haidar, who says nearly killed him.

Last year a man was sentenced 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his atheism on Twitter.

The 28-year-old reportedly refused to repent, insisting what he wrote reflected his beliefs and that he had the right to express them.

Source: The Sun, Tariq Tahir, August 1, 2018

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde