The most ridiculous executions in Saudi Arabia. The death penalty in Saudi Arabia - Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia. What is not forgiven here
A large, oil-rich Middle Eastern country that borders Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan, Saudi Arabia is the most powerful power in the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia is the "Land of the Two Holy Mosques", home to the oldest Islamic cities, and one of the few states with an absolute monarchy. She is the only one with access to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The kingdom is beautiful, of course, but its traditions of treating women and using the death penalty are controversial points for the whole world. Saudi Arabia also leads the OPEC oil cartel, which has a huge impact on the global oil market.
The Kingdom once armed entered the civil war in Yemen, supporting the government against the Houthi militants. But outside help does not rule out problems of its own: declining oil prices, internal political divisions, and attempts to diversify the economy. In the understanding of the West, this country is an anachronism, where the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam is the absolute law, and where a woman is forbidden to drive a car. But on the other hand, here are the roots great history and cultures to which millions of Muslims flock each year for the Hajj pilgrimage and huge oil fields.
Here are 15 amazing facts about the oil Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:
15. NO ELECTIONS, PARLIAMENT, POLITICAL PARTIES AND DISSENT
Absolute monarchy reigns here, there are no national elections, political parties and a representative parliament, there is only a symbolic council body, the Majlis al-Shura, or Consultative Assembly, which has no power to legislate and enforce them. This open disregard for democratic norms has been going on for decades. Along with the most brutal dictatorial countries, Saudi Arabia regularly receives the lowest civil and political freedom scores from think tanks like Freedom House.
Nor is there a Constitution, although the statute known as the Basic Law Saudi Arabia, adopted by royal decree in 1992, obliges the monarch to rule by observing the Shariah and the Koran instead of the Constitution. Criticism and dissent are strictly forbidden: activists are regularly imprisoned and sentenced to cruel punishments. Examples: Abd al-Karim, who demanded a transition to a constitutional monarchy and received 8 years in prison for this, and blogger Raif Badawi, who received 1,000 lashes for calling for freedom of speech.
14. HOUSE OF THE HOLY ISLAMIC CITIES
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and the most sacred religious places - Mecca and Medina. At 13 meters high, the Kaaba is the holiest site in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Islam's holiest mosque. All Muslims send their prayers to her. One of the five pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his life, if he has the strength and finances to do so. Approximately two million people visit Saudi Arabia every year.
It is easy to guess that a large gathering of pilgrims in one place can lead to serious problems, such as the stampede in 2015, which killed and injured, according to some reports, more than 2,000 people.
13. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH EXECUTIONERS FOR ALL THE EXECUTIONS
The death penalty is widespread in Saudi Arabia. In 2015, the authorities saw them off every other day. The country ranks 4th in the world in terms of the number of executions, they are carried out for reasons such as adultery and rejection of Islam. In most cases, the execution is carried out by cutting off the head with a scimitar. The Kingdom may be the only country that suffers from a shortage of executioners: in early 2013, the government considered changing the method of execution due to the lack of executioners. The method of execution is considered in priority.
In addition, Saudi Arabia is one of four countries where public executions remain. Diera Square in the center of Riyadh is a famous site of public beheadings, known locally as "Chop-Chop Square".
12. HUGE OIL RESERVES
What words come to mind when you think of Saudi Arabia? Since the Kingdom is the largest exporter of crude oil, its name is synonymous with everything related to oil and gas. More than half of GDP comes from the profits of the oil industry. Oil reserves are simply unrealistic: the largest Gavar field can accommodate 4,770,897 Olympic pools. It is estimated that even after decades of pumping oil for export, there are still about 75 billion barrels left.
Saudi Arabia holds 22 percent of the world's oil reserves, only Venezuela has more. In 1960, the Kingdom was a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Due to the massive oil industry, 30 percent of the country's population are foreign workers.
11. THE LARGEST COUNTRY WITHOUT A SINGLE RIVER
With an area of more than 2 million square kilometers, Saudi Arabia ranks 13th in the world in terms of territorial size. More than 95 percent are deserts and semi-deserts, many of which are the largest on earth (Great Nefud in the north and Rub al-Khali in the south). Due to the abundance of deserts and an average temperature of about 45 degrees Celsius, there are no rivers and lakes in Saudi Arabia, but underground reservoirs flow.
This is the largest country in the Middle East, it makes up most of the Arabian Peninsula (about a quarter of the US) and is the world's largest territorial entity without a single river on the map.
10. THE ROYAL FAMILY WORTH $14 TRILLION
As heads of the House of Saud, the monarch and thousands of his royal relatives hold every important office in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The kingship of this country would have been the object of the desire of any medieval court; King Salman's net worth is estimated at more than $17 billion, and more than 7,000 family princes (some estimates put the total number of members of the royal nobility at about 30,000) hold important posts, while more talented candidates are left behind due to the wrong name.
From the state oil monopoly, the royal family receives huge profits, which are estimated at about 270 billion a year.
In fact, if you represent all of the wealth of the Saudi royal family as a single sum, it comes out to about $14 trillion.
9. Severe punishments
We have already mentioned the cruel laws of Saudi Arabia, what about punishments? It turns out that they are no better: the legal system uses the same ultra-conservative and traditionalist Hanbali school as the foundations of jurisprudence, as does the terrorist Islamic State. Trial occurs solely on the basis of a certain interpretation of Islamic law.
Among the punishments of the authorities are chopping off hands and feet for theft, whipping and stoning for adultery and other acts, beheading for riots, political crimes, drug smuggling and witchcraft. Death sentences are also passed for blasphemy, homosexuality and robbery by violence. Saudi Arabia has not responded to ever-increasing pressure to liberalize its legal system and has consistently applied penalties and the death penalty.
8. A DANGEROUS FAD "SIDEWALK SKIING"
This is a rather bold entertainment, fraught with a "funny" danger. The stunt consists of driving on two wheels on one side of the car on the roadway, during which a person climbs onto the car and stands on top of it during the entire movement. Fans of this entertainment treat it with a purely sporting interest, but this is one of the most useless and dangerous inventions that mankind has ever given out.
In one video, a team of similar stuntmen climb out of a car to change a tire. All this happens on the go. Saying "Don't try this at home" is an understatement.
7. TENT VILLAGE
Initially, pilgrims took tents with them on their journey and set them up on the plains of Mina. In the 1990s, the Saudi Arabian government made housing easier for religious tourists by setting up campsites with regular cotton tents. But in 1997, a fire broke out in the settlement, which claimed the lives of 350 pilgrims. After that, a new camp was organized with fire-resistant tents. Mina city has 100,000 neat fireproof tents with air conditioning, kitchen and bathroom. In fact, this is a modern residential complex.
The state-of-the-art tents can accommodate about 3 million people. About 5 days a year they are occupied by pilgrims, and the rest of the time they are empty. The kingdom has received a barrage of global criticism after refusing to host Syrian refugees there.
6. THE PROBLEM WITH LINGERIE
Women are effectively prohibited from working outside the home. This causes embarrassing situations, such as when the clerk in the lingerie department is a man. Embarrassed women who could not make intimate purchases because of this made an attempt to change the legislation. They were heeded, and in 2012 a decree was issued banning men from working in lingerie stores.
But the decree was contrary to Sharia, which is why about a hundred stores ignored the innovation. A few months after the entry into force of the law, they were closed. The decree is still in effect, and various inspections regularly monitor its implementation. If a male salesperson is found, the shops are threatened with closure.
5. THEY HAVE "MAGIC POLICE"
In Saudi Arabia, everything that is directly or indirectly related to magic, witchcraft and magic is banned. This is considered a serious crime, people were even beheaded for supposedly practicing magic. The government takes the magical threat so seriously that it even banned the Harry Potter books and created special anti-witchcraft police squads. Established in 2009, the Anti-Witchcraft Group is a member of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Disorder of the Saudi Religious Police. They are tasked with apprehending sorcerers and preventing their spells. Since 2009, more than 500 people have been prosecuted for practicing magic.
People supposedly whispering spells, performing rituals, or caught with talismans can get into very serious trouble. But the question of witchcraft is very delicate, because the original and generally recognized features of witches are as follows: they have a broom on which they fly. Saudi Arabia's legal code leaves the matter to the judge, who must decide whether a person is guilty of witchcraft and receives the death penalty.
4. IN THE FUTURE, THE COUNTRY WITH THE HIGHEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD
The most long-awaited event for all the people of the globe is the construction of the “Tallest building in the world”. The position is currently held by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. In 2018, the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, also known as the Royal Tower, will proudly take the title. It will be the first building in history to reach a kilometer in height and will be the gleaming centerpiece of Saudi Arabia's new coastal city. To imagine what this would look like, imagine the World shopping center in New York (541 meters) - here it is a little more than half the estimated height of the Royal Tower.
When completed, the tower will include a hotel, an observatory, offices, and obscenely expensive penthouses. Estimated cost $1.2 billion. Now the project is called "the limit of engineering possibilities."
3 WOMEN'S RIGHTS ARE WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT
Before traveling to Saudi Arabia, it is highly recommended that you familiarize yourself with its laws. Recently, women's rights in the Persian Gulf have been the subject of social opposition. It is now the last country on earth where women are not allowed to drive. This fact attracts representatives of the media everywhere. This is just the tip of the iceberg, without the permission of a man, women are prohibited from leaving the house, making purchases, opening a bank account, getting a job, attending school, acting as a legal and other official, and agreeing to an operation.
Until recently, women could not vote and sit in the advisory chamber, making Saudi Arabia the latest country to give women the right to vote. Before his death, King Abdullah assigned a fifth of the council chamber to women and allowed them to vote, but this was more of a symbolic gesture that did not essentially affect the lives of Saudi women.
2. ONE OF THE BIGGEST MILITARY BUDGETS IN THE WORLD
For a country of 33 million people, Saudi Arabia's military spending is enormous. The Kingdom usually ranks 4th in the world in terms of military spending, behind the United States, China and Russia, and all superpowers have a population and territory several times larger. In 2015, it was in 3rd place, raising its budget from $80 billion to over $87 billion.
By the way, Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries that has one of the most advanced tanks in the world - the M1 Abrams. There are about several hundred of them. In 2010-2014, the Kingdom was the world's second largest arms importer.
1. IMPORT OF SAND AND CAMEL FROM AUSTRALIA
Yes, that's right: the sand country actually buys its sand from Australia. What for? It turns out that not a single type of Saudi sand is suitable for construction. Construction of buildings requires special alluvial sand without silica (it often generates a lot of dust and difficulties for workers during sandblasting). The Kingdom receives sand with the necessary properties in bulk from Australia.
Now about camels. In Saudi Arabia, they are used to transport people and goods, and sometimes for racing. Australia is happy to export its camels, which are wild and vicious. Ironically, camels were first imported to Australia from Arabia, India and Afghanistan in the 19th century.
The other day in Saudi Arabia, one of the most massive series of executions in the history of the country took place - the authorities enforced the death sentence against 37 people, most of them Shiites. One of them was crucified, this punishment is applied in the country only for the most serious crimes, writes TJournal.
Among those executed were those who were accused of killing security officials with explosives, forming terrorist cells and spreading terrorist ideology. But there were also those who were executed for crimes allegedly committed before adulthood, which is prohibited by international law.
The Western media reported on several such executions. For example, Abdulkarim al-Khawaj was only 16 years old when he spread information via WhatsApp about the protests. He was publicly beheaded when he was already 21 years old. He was detained at the airport, from where he was supposed to fly to his family.
Mujtaba al-Sweikat was 17 when he took part in the protests. He was arrested in 2012, also at the airport - he had to fly away to enter a university in the United States.
Abdulkarim al-Khawaj and Mujtab al-Sweikat
Munir al-Adam was 23 years old when he was detained in 2012 at a checkpoint. From the age of five, he was deaf in one ear, and after being tortured, he became completely deaf.
Saudi Arabia said in a statement that all those executed have confessed to their guilt. CNN, citing obtained court documents, reported that some of those executed claimed at trial that they were innocent, and their confessions were written by investigators and only signed by them under torture. In some cases, the suspects were not even required to sign - a fingerprint was put on the paper with the "testimony".
According to Amnesty International, 11 of those executed were charged with spying for Iran and 14 others with participating in protests in the eastern part of the country between 2011 and 2012. According to the British human rights organization Reprieve, confessions were forced out of all suspects under torture, on the basis of which they were sentenced to death. Executions were carried out in Riyadh, Mecca and Medina.
Other suspects in similar crimes are still awaiting the death penalty. For example, Ali al-Nimr was sentenced to crucifixion for participating in protests and teaching first aid to protesters, two more young men were sentenced to death for crimes they committed before the age of 18.
Ali al-Nimr (above), Abdullah al-Zaher (left) and Dawood al-Marhun sentenced to death
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi called the execution of 37 Saudi nationals a manifestation of the pre-Islamic era of "ignorance." He called on the world community to resist such actions of Riyadh.
In 2016, Saudi Arabia executed 46 people at once, including Shiite leader Nimr al-Nimr.
How will your first day in Saudi Arabia start?
Friday, noon. The crowd surrounded the center of old Riyadh. The big al-Juma prayer has just ended in the main mosque of the city. A sharp sword, a little more than a meter long, with an Arabic-curved end, forged from steel shining in the sun, is now carried high above the head of a kneeling figure. From under the white clothes that hide the whole body, only a bare neck peeps out. Sixty or more men waited, standing around the perimeter of the wide square square, guarded by a confused row of eight soldiers dressed in bronze-coloured uniforms.
The executioner, who raised the sword, takes on menacing proportions and seems somehow mystical and ghostly, like a vision, in his long white dishdash shirt and red plaid keffiyeh bandage. He is ready to deliver a decisive blow, but suddenly steps back. Departs a couple of steps from the chopping block. Quietly conferring with two police officers and another person - the only person who can stop him: the victim of a criminal sentenced to death.
The short meeting is over. The executioner returns to the chopping block. He puts his right foot forward, left - wide back, as if doing a stretch. The raised sword gives a second solar reflection. A second moment - and ..!
But the executioner only smoothly lowers the sword on the neck of the condemned. Gives him the feel of hardened steel. The criminal's body tenses and freezes in anticipation. The sword swings high again, only this time it's for real. one exact and swipe cuts through the skin, muscles and bones with a deaf, hollow echo. A bloody waterfall erupts from the severed neck onto the granite square with a characteristic sound, as if wet laundry is being squeezed into a steel basin. The headless body leans forward, slightly collapses and falls on its right side.
The executioner wipes the sword with a piece of white cloth. The crowd parted as two men in blue overalls emerged from deep within the low arches surrounding the square, lifting the body and placing it on a stretcher. One of them picks up the head for a piece of matter in which it was wrapped. The elements of the crime are read out loudly: rape, drug trafficking and possession by the devil. The executioner sheathes his sword. A thick-bearded man in the form of a soldier clap his hands and raise them to the sky.
In five minutes, there will be no one left in the square except for a janitor hosing down the bloody granite.
The death penalty is used in many countries. Public death penalty is popular in only four places on the planet. Well, the public death penalty using the full range of "technologies", such as: hanging, beheading, throwing stones, shooting, as well as beheading followed by crucifixion of the body on cranes - is used only in Saudi Arabia. In Iran, they execute 7 times more people a year, but even there they manage without chopping off their heads. When comparing Saudi and other countries, for some reason this important detail is often forgotten.
Someone writes that Saudi Arabia has recently stopped carrying out public executions, and the situation is improving. Nothing like this. The wide square square on which the head of the executed man flew is called the Chop-Chop Square by the locals.
Chop Chop Square is nothing of interest. It's just an empty place in the middle of old Riyadh, surrounded by low walls. One of the adjacent buildings houses the central city mosque. Not far from the square are the buildings of the court and various ministries. The perfect place for the death penalty.
The architectural complex of the square is completed by the ministry "For the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice", on the sandy facade of which hangs a poster with the slogan: "My prayer is my happiness."
On all days except Friday, the square is unremarkable and even boring. In the shade at the tables, the Arabs sit and drink tea, prayers are held in the mosque, and in general it is very good to relax under the palm trees in the heat.
On Friday, there is a special, long Friday prayer, which is very important for Muslims. Countless crowds of Riyadh residents flock to the nearest mosques from all directions. Around the central square, everything is cordoned off by the police. Sirens are constantly howling and dozens of red and blue lights are shimmering. It seems that they are not here to protect against a terrorist attack, but as if a terrorist attack has already occurred.
Even close to the Chop-Chop square, there is no desire to be at this time, not to mention thinking about going inside. Any non-Muslim is stopped by armed soldiers and carefully examined. Then they pass.
The author came to look at the death penalty, keeping the camera in the bag in the off state - for trying to remove the chopping off of the head, I would not want to lose it myself. Armed soldiers on the approach to the square checked the bag, looked at each other, said something on the radio and let it through. Then I sat on a bench for half an hour and waited for what would happen.
A few minutes later, the Arabs left, having finished their tea. A police jeep drove up and dropped off the officer on duty a few meters away. Then the jeep drove off into the visibility zone at the other end of the square, and the soldier remained standing and pretending that he didn’t care about me. The author, on the other hand, was sitting on a bench under the palm trees, arms folded, keeping the camera turned off in the bag.
Nothing else happened in the square. No death penalty. But as soon as I got up and went to the exit, the soldier immediately stopped me. He asked me to open my bag. I took the camera and turned it on. He asked me to look through the photos, which were the streets of Riyadh. Then he snatched the camera out of his hands and began flipping through reverse side, reporting on the radio what he sees in each photo. Several minutes passed like this, until he was convinced that I had not filmed the square.
I didn't see the death penalty. They really stopped being held on Chop-Chop Square, but only on this square! In order not to gather crowds of onlookers, the Saudi authorities are now carrying out decapitation not at the central mosque, but at the place where the crime was committed.
It's unbelievable how crazy the laws are here. First, the killer is arrested and put in jail. Conduct court. Only one thing can save him from the death penalty - a ransom. Often the relatives of the killer and the relatives of the victim agree among themselves on a ransom. As a result, murderers are not always executed, and heads are flying from drug dealers, homosexuals and political dissidents, who either no one cares about, or it is more expensive for oneself to get involved.
The most important thing: after the trial, if it is possible to establish the scene of the crime, the victim is taken to this place, wherever it is, and their head is cut off right there. Even if it's right in the middle of the street. For example, like this woman who killed and raped a child, screaming to the end that she was not guilty.
Well, nothing else happens on Chop-Chop Square. Not far from the former block, the city museum was opened in the former fort. Workers and businessmen often come here on weekends, school excursions are held. Almost none of these "tourists" even knows that after a hundred meters they cut off their heads.
Old Riyadh
The Masmak fortress is a beautifully executed remake, a reconstruction of an old fort.
The 19th-century Arab interior has been restored in the fortress - boring and meaningless, like the whole of Arabia.
Model of the old city.
On the wall are quotes from King Abdulaziz: "I conquered this country thanks to the will of Allah and the Arab spirit."
In the courtyard stands a working copy of the will of Allah.
Interesting characters. With some kind of cunning, they sniffed out something.
Streets behind the fortress.
There is also a market near the fort, a typical bazaar, like in any third world country. The market sells carpets, clothes and gold.
As soon as I took this harmless picture, a policeman noticed me. He called me to his car, asked for a passport. Long considered a business visa. Realizing that I was of no use, he made a saddened, downright upset face and the voice of an educator in kindergarten said:
Andrew... Are you... taking pictures?
- Yes, I'm only Fort Masmak!
- Ah, well, go, inshallah.
⁂
A few kilometers from Riyadh there is another historical site - the ruins of the old city of Ad-Diriya.
Restored ruins, of course.
You can write about them for exactly one reason - it is surprisingly empty and clumsy here, as if it had fallen into a plastic model.
But I must say, the Arabs restore conscientiously. The doors seem to have been carved by the same craftsman as 200 years ago.
However, it is not necessary to go to artificial ruins. In secret, there are enough real ruins in the center. I walked around the city for a long time, went around all the non-tourist places. Hidden behind pathetic skyscrapers and a wealthy private sector, Riyadh is essentially dirty, filthy streets lined with shabby low-rise buildings.
This is what is happening a hundred meters from Chop-Chop Square.
This is what the real Riyadh looks like. Just like those museum ruins, only for real. The old houses, built of sand and corals, seemed to have been washed away by water - only heaps of clay remained, no frame.
Such streets occupy more than half of the city. Riyadh is full of Pakistani neighborhoods that look even worse.
I went around the whole city; I decided to get the camera only in a couple of places. After all the Saudi paranoia and two arrests, who knows if I would have been mistaken for a spy or just a careless fool.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a controversial and mysterious country with orders that sometimes frighten a European. A Muslim country where only one religion is recognized - Islam with the dominant trend of Wahhabism. Where believers pray five times a day and live according to religious Sharia law. Mecca of Muslim pilgrimage with hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims. The owner of 25% of the oil reserves on the planet and GDP per capita is not much less than even in the United States. And the country, along with China, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, is among the top five in terms of the number of cases of execution of the death penalty. In Saudi Arabia, this institution of punishment still exists today.
Public policy
The country is an absolute theocratic monarchy with a current cabinet of ministers. The Quran is the code of practice or, in Western terms, the constitution. Justice is based on a religious foundation and is represented by the Sharia court. The word "justice" is used rather conditionally, since there is no criminal code in the country, and the judge makes decisions based on Sharia law. There are two types of police in the country: ordinary and religious - the commission for the promotion of virtue or mutawa. It is she who is called upon to monitor the observance of the ethical norms of the Koran and the execution of all prohibitions.
Features of Saudi justice
According to Sharia law, there are three types of punishments:
Procedural Features
A confession and an oath are sufficient for an accusation in a Sharia court. There are no restrictions for mentally ill people and underage. There is no difference between citizens of the kingdom and foreigners. A lawyer is an unnecessary and unaffordable luxury, even when it comes to an execution in Saudi Arabia. Recently, there are no differences in punishment based on gender.
Saudi Arabia: lashings
It is this type of punishment that most often gets into the news columns of the Western media. This type of execution in Saudi Arabia is no more common than in all Muslim countries. Although let's not dissemble - here they beat much more often and harder. The record number of lashes - four thousand - was appointed in 1990. Egyptian Muhammad Ali al-Sayyid received such a sentence for robbery. The Shariah judge declared such a punishment to be mercy, because initially they wanted to cut off the hand of the convicted person.
The merciful Themis of Sharia divides the number of lashes and stretches the punishment for long term. Few people can withstand a hundred lashes, so the victim is given a period of rehabilitation, and then the execution is resumed.
Such executions in Saudi Arabia are public, carried out with a crowd of citizens.
Decapitation and other horrors
A terrible public punishment for a Westerner is beheading followed by crucifixion for educational purposes. This is almost a ceremonial murder, which came from the darkness of the Middle Ages. Executions take place in the main square after lunchtime prayers. Cutting off the head is carried out by the executioner - there is such a position in the kingdom, it is inherited in the al-Bishy family. The presence of a doctor is required. Horror!
Prohibition of alcohol - how they are executed in Saudi Arabia
The use, manufacture and possession of alcohol is under the strictest prohibition of Shariah. Punishment is in the form of lashes. The case of Briton Carl Andy is illustrative. A seventy-three-year-old man was found with a bottle of homemade wine. Despite the fact that Carl suffered from asthma and cancer, he spent almost a year in prison waiting for 350 strokes. The pinnacle of diplomacy can be called the efforts of the embassy workers, who, under the threat of worsening relations, were able to take the sick Briton home.
But what is excusable for the allies of the Wahhabi state is completely inexcusable for everyone else and is subject to severe execution in Saudi Arabia. So, a resident of the Philippines, Faustino Salazaro, received four months in prison and 75 lashes just for buying a couple of packages of chocolate with liquor inside in Duty Free Bahrain.
Fornication and adultery
The prevention of these acts contrary to the Qur'an is an important component of Sharia justice. Moreover, the acts are interpreted ambiguously and very broadly. An illustration is the case that occurred in 2006 and was covered by the Western press as "the rape in Qatif." Seven men stole a couple from a car and abused both of them. The Shariah judge determined the punishment for the rapists in the form of several hundred lashes and long prison terms. But the victims, who were accused of debauchery, also got it, because these people were not spouses. They were also sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes. The Western world exploded in outraged protests. Under pressure from the world community, King Abdullah nevertheless canceled the judge's decision regarding the victim, although he called the judge's actions fair for such a Muslim country as Saudi Arabia. Executions of people for such crimes should be severe, he stressed in an interview with Western journalists.
For same-sex relationship, you can lose your head
Homosexuality is severely persecuted in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Executions for this crime can be the most cruel. And yet this phenomenon is quite common. The education system is based on gender segregation, minimizing contacts between men and women before marriage leads to the development of homosexual manifestations among young people.
In addition, there is, as it were, an unspoken agreement between the LGBT communities and the authorities of the country. Homosexuals openly respect the norms of Wahhabism, and the authorities do not notice the personal life of this category of subjects. Excesses often happen, but more often the sentences of judges are quite mild.
The most brutal executions in Saudi Arabia - for witchcraft
For vigilant neighbors and colleagues in the country created hotline for messages about citizens who practice magic or sorcery. The verdict of the court is unequivocal - chopping off (decapitation) of the head and crucifixion of the body as an edification to all living people and an example of how apostates are executed in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the presence of the Koran in the toilet may be sufficient for prosecution, as happened in 2007 with Mustafa Ibrahim, a pharmacist from Egypt.
More often foreign guest workers suffer from fighters with magic. Two Asian maids in 2013 “got off lightly” with 1,000 lashes and ten years behind bars for magically damaging an employer, whose mere statement was enough to execute women.
In Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International, 154 people were executed in 2016. This figure is not much less than in 2015 (158). The cruel execution in Saudi Arabia, photos of examples of which filled the pages of the media, cannot leave the Western audience indifferent. Asking the question of how this can be in a prosperous state of the XXI century, the answer is found in the Koran - a book written in 600 years of our era. According to this ancient source, all sins are criminal offenses and provide just such severe punishments. And that this is not consistent with the norms of international law and modern ideas about humanism - as they say, "do not go, children, to walk in Africa." Of course, if you are not a Wahhabi Muslim.
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