RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Seven Saudi men were beheaded Friday for gang raping a man, while two drug dealers were executed for killing a police officer, the Interior Ministry said.

The seven were found guilty of drinking alcohol, then luring a victim to a secluded place where they ``violated him one after the other (while) threatening him with a knife.'' The seven took pictures of the victim in obscene positions, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The statement did not give the victim's age or further details of when or where the assault took place. The men were executed in the Red Sea city of al-Kunfudhah.

In a separate statement, the ministry said two men were beheaded Friday in the northwestern city of Tabuk for murdering a police officer and trafficking in drugs.

The ministry said the men, who used and sold drugs, killed one officer and injured three others during a shootout at the time of their arrest. They escaped, but were captured later.

The statement provided no further details of the crime.

The executions Friday bring to 41 the number of people executed this year. Last year 125 people were beheaded.

Executions are carried out in public with a sword.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam that prescribes the death penalty for murder, rape, drug trafficking and armed robbery.

"Executions are carried out in public with a sword."

I kind of like the "human touch". Hate it when they slice ham and roast beef with a machine at the supermarket.

Rick

:-(

I gather that the Islamic courts where these men were convicted are vey different from the criminal courts in America and other democracies. Evidence is not presented, there is no protection of constitutional rights, etc. Convictions are based purely on the prosecutor's accusation.

How would you ever DETECT one, Kim, under such a system?

Alex

It's good to know that there are countries out there who don't even bother to act like the rights of the accused are protected.

Unfortunately, if you're poor and in the United States, you have little chance of maintaining your rights.

Don't believe me? spend a couple days in a big cite D.A.'s office with prosecutors who work the misdemeanors and low-level felonies - just about everybody pleads to a "lesser" charge, even though there may be little evidence to convict.

Be careful out there.

pax yall

Just thinking out loud, is all.

The system is FAR from perfect, but Dickens had it a lot more accurately than you do. In the West, the Law is an Ass, in countries like the one mentioned here, Lewis Carroll had it right: "I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury, said cunning old Fury, I'll hear the whole thing and sentence you to death!" (more or less)

troll

Unfortunately, many people are caught in this system and instead of trying to fight (because of innocence or because of insufficiant evidence) they "cop a plea."

The Public Defender system is almost universally over-taxed and under-funded and there is little incentive for the average P.D. to seriously fight for the hundreds of cases they deal with each year.

A 20 year old who is arrested and spends minutes talking to his public defender - when the P.D. doesn't even have all the facts is not on an equal level with the D.A.

The judges are too busy and the D.A.s are two busy - sometimes they don't even have the evidence or information they think they have - yet since no one questions them in general, they go ahead on the assumption that the defendant is guilty "anyhow."

I can tell you dozens of horror stories.

And then there's the little case of the Republican governor of Illinois who, last year, suspended executions because he had so little faith in the process of finding people guilty of capital crimes.

No - we are not Saudi Arabia - and our justice system isn't all bad, but we are a long, long way from where we should be. And that's not even considering huge number of political prisoners the state is holding because of drug possession (yes, that's my opinion: political prisoners). Of course we could kill most of the drug dealers like Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia do.

pax yall

dopey,
Alex

What pissed me off most about these assholes was the sheer hypocrisy of it all. Drunk out of their skulls any time I encountered them (which was in the casino, in my bad-boy days) they spent all their time trying to pick up hookers, but didn't have the savvy to distinguish a hooker from a non-hooker. Also they gambled and lost in one evening more than I earned in a year.

And then they go back to Saudi and have the audacity to condone the stoning of women for adultery, and imposing outrageous sentences for the consumption of alcohol and for gambling ?.

I have more, much more, I know plenty of ex-Saudi workers, don't even get me started about the so-called "religious police"

Murray

My friend who lived in Saudi Arabia commented to a local that she didn't understand their system of justice. The Saudi said, "And I don't understand your system of crime."

Murray

" London is full of Saudi tourists. Why does the Saudi Government ban tourism ?".

I wonder why ?

Murray

Alex

That is taken from this site where you can also catch a video of four people being stoned to death at a security centre in Tehran.

Jim Dixon, I did follow that link and read it. It didn't soften my hostility to Sharia law. However I do think Amnesty, which campaigns for prisoners of conscience, confuses the message and undermines its authority on that issue when it also compaigns for people convicted by due process, whose punishments just seem needlessly barbaric to some of us in some other parts of the world.

The death sentence is not and never has been a deterent. People do not commit crimes thinking that they will be caught so, whatever the sentence, it is not considered at the time of the crime.

It is effective in only two ways. It stops the perpetrator commiting the crime ever again and satisfies the need for vengence. Putting them in prison and making sure they stay there would achieve the former.

This only leaves vengence. And if it's vengence you want, why not make a proper job of it? What is the point of a painless death? It would only leave the victims families unsatisfied. If it's vengence you want lets go the whole hog. Beheading is probably quite civilised, as long as the headsman gets it right. Stoning gets a bit better. Why not go for hanging, drawing and quartering? Burning? Staked out and eaten by ants?

Don't get me wrong. For my own reasons I am very much against the death penalty but I will not be drawn on that debate here. All I am saying is that if you must have it, do it properly. That is all the Saudis are trying to do.

On a lighter note I was once approached by an Arabic youth taking part in a demonstartion in Manchester. He attempted to engage me in conversation about the issues they were demonstrating about, which the aged brain has long since lost. I remember him being taken aback though when I asked if it would be OK for me and a group of collegues to walk through the streets of Riyadh or Tehran demonstrating for the right to drink alcohol!

Cheers

Dave the Gnome