Saudi Arabia ad: “Wanted” Sword Executioner (soaring rates) //Amnesty Calls it Barbaric
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia advertised vacancies for eight executioners today after beheading nearly as many people since the start of the year as it did in the whole of 2014.
The civil service ministry said that no qualifications were necessary and that applicants would be exempted from the usual entrance exams.
It said that as well as beheadings, the successful candidates would be expected to carry out amputations ordered by the courts under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.
Amputation of one or both hands is a routine penalty for theft. Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death.
Most executions are carried out by beheading, but a few are carried out by firing squad, stoning or crucifixion.
All are carried out in public and video footage sometimes appears on the Internet despite a ban on filming.
In January, gruesome footage was posted of a Burmese woman protesting her innocence before being beheaded by a swordsman on a public street in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
Ignoring her screams, the white-robed executioner forces her to lie down on the ground, near a pedestrian crossing, then severs her head with a curved sword.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim had been sentenced to death for killing her husband's six-year-old daughter.
The vacancies were advertised on the ministry's website in the "religious jobs" section.
Last year, Saudi Arabia executed 87 people, according to an AFP tally, ranking it third in the world for use of the death penalty.
Already this year, it has put 85 people to death in what human rights group Amnesty International has described as a "macabre spike".
Today, a convicted serial rapist of young girls was beheaded in Riyadh, SPA reported.
The interior ministry says the death penalty is an important deterrent.
But on a visit to Riyadh this month, French President Francois Hollande said capital punishment “should be banned".
~~~~~~Amnesty International Calls it Barbaric~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~By Stephen Rogers Irish Examiner Reporter
The civil service ministry said that no qualifications were necessary and that applicants would be exempted from the usual entrance exams.
It said that as well as beheadings, the successful candidates would be expected to carry out amputations ordered by the courts under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.
Amputation of one or both hands is a routine penalty for theft. Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death.
Most executions are carried out by beheading, but a few are carried out by firing squad, stoning or crucifixion.
All are carried out in public and video footage sometimes appears on the Internet despite a ban on filming.
In January, gruesome footage was posted of a Burmese woman protesting her innocence before being beheaded by a swordsman on a public street in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
Ignoring her screams, the white-robed executioner forces her to lie down on the ground, near a pedestrian crossing, then severs her head with a curved sword.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim had been sentenced to death for killing her husband's six-year-old daughter.
The vacancies were advertised on the ministry's website in the "religious jobs" section.
Last year, Saudi Arabia executed 87 people, according to an AFP tally, ranking it third in the world for use of the death penalty.
Already this year, it has put 85 people to death in what human rights group Amnesty International has described as a "macabre spike".
Today, a convicted serial rapist of young girls was beheaded in Riyadh, SPA reported.
The interior ministry says the death penalty is an important deterrent.
But on a visit to Riyadh this month, French President Francois Hollande said capital punishment “should be banned".
~~~~~~Amnesty International Calls it Barbaric~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~By Stephen Rogers Irish Examiner Reporter
Amnesty International has condemned as “grotesque” the Saudi Arabian government’s advertisement for eight executioners to carry out its public beheadings.
The advert on its civil service appointment system says the person will not need to have any specific qualifications and that the successful candidate will be remunerated at the lower end of the civil service pay scale.
Applicants will also be expected to carry out amputations on those found guilty of lesser offenses.
the punishment for theft is to have a hand cut off.
Saudi Arabia executed almost 90 people last year — already in 2015 it has put 84 people to death for a range of crimes including murder, drug trafficking, and rape.
Amnesty International has laid much of the blame for the upsurge in executions on King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who came to power at the start of the year.
Colm O’Gorman, of Amnesty International Ireland, said: “There is something particularly grotesque about a job advert that seeks to recruit someone whose role involves the deliberate killing of people.
“Saudi Arabia has the world’s third-highest recorded executions, last year putting at least 90 people to death. Now they are looking to recruit more executioners, people who will kill women and men in cold blood, by beheading them in public executions.
“Hiring more executioners is a significant regressive step and shows us that Saudi Arabia seems determined to continue with this form of punishment.”
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