THE AUSTRALIAN: TWO Saudi police officers were beheaded by the sword after being convicted of raping an expatriate woman.
Corporal Shaalan bin Nasser al-Qahtani and Lance Corporal Fahd bin Hassan al-Sebeyi were convicted of attacking an expatriate and raping his niece at a checkpoint they were manning in the capital.
They had stopped them late in the night, beat the man up and locked him in a police car and then raped the woman.
The two men were arrested shortly after the victims reported them at the nearest police station.
Their executions bring to 11 the number of beheadings announced by the Saudi authorities since the beginning of the year. A total of 102 people were executed last year.
In 2007, a record 153 people were executed in the country, which applies a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law. That figure compared with 37 in 2006 and the previous record of 113 in 2000.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, where executions are usually carried out in public. [Source: The Australian] Agence France-Presse| Saturday, February 21, 2009
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