Saudi court upholds child rapist crucifixion ruling

A Saudi court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man convicted of raping five children and leaving one of them to die in the desert, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The convict was arrested earlier this year after a seven-year old boy helped police in their investigation.

The child left in the desert after the rape was three years old, Okaz newspaper said.

International rights groups have accused the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, of applying draconian justice, beheading murderers, rapists and drug traffickers in public. So far this year about 40 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, crucifixion means tying the body of the convict to wooden beams to be displayed to the public after beheading.

Source: YNet

Saudi Court of Cassation
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MAN BEHEADED AND CRUCIFIED IN SAUDI ARABIA

An "horrific" public execution and crucifixion of a man in Saudi Arabia has been condemned by Amnesty International. Ahmed bin 'Adhaib bin 'Askar al-shamlani al-'Anzi was beheaded and his body crucified in a public place in Riyadh on Friday.

He had been sentenced for the alleged abduction and murder of a father and son. He was also punished for previous offences of Luwat (homosexual intercourse), possession of sexually explicit materials and for raising a gun against security forces seeking to arrest him.

"It is horrific that beheading and crucifixions still happen," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Programme Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa programme. "King Abdullah should show true leadership and commute all death sentences if Saudi Arabia is to have any role to play as a global leader or member of the G20."

Trial proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall way short of international fair trial standards. They usually take place behind closed doors without adequate legal representation. Convictions are often made on the basis of "confessions" obtained under duress, including torture or other ill-treatment during incommunicado detention.

Those who are sentenced to death are often not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them or of the date of execution until the morning they are taken out and beheaded.

Saudi Arabia continues to defy the UN General Assembly resolution adopted in 2007 and 2008 calling for a moratorium on executions.

Amnesty International recorded a total of 102 executions in Saudi Arabia in 2008. Due to the strict secrecy of the criminal justice system in Saudi Arabia, it is not possible to know how many have been sentenced to death, but Amnesty International is aware of at least 136 individuals currently believed to be awaiting execution.

Source: www.amnesty.org

Iran and Hamas do Christmas

By Caroline B. Glick

Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seemed to have noticed.

On Tuesday Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Sharia criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, the code legalizes crucifixion.

Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time as it renewed its jihad. Here too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday Hamas lobbed a mortar at Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.

While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism. The source of Iran's sense of ascendancy this week was Britain's state-owned Channel 4 network's decision to request that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad give a special Christmas Day address to the British people. Ahmadinejad's speech was supposed to be a response to Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas Day address to her subjects. That is, Channel 4 presented his message as a reasonable counterpoint to the Christmas greetings of the head of the Church of England.

Channel 4 justified its move by proclaiming that it was providing a public service. As a Channel 4 spokesman told the Jerusalem Post, "We're offering [Ahmadinejad] the chance to speak for himself, which people in the West don't often get the chance to see." Read more ...

Source: Jewish World Review