THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia's royal family has issued a last-minute stay of execution to a jewellery thief sentenced to be crucified after an outcry from human rights groups.
Sarhan al-Mashayekh was one of seven men whose death sentences were confirmed by King Abdullah on Saturday. The other six were due be shot by firing squad on Tuesday. Mashayekh would have been executed at the same time and then, to fulfil his additional sentence, his body displayed to the public in a cruciform position for three days.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups all exressed outrage at the sentences, partly because of their severity, partly because the defendants claimed confessions had been extracted under torture, and partly because at least two of those condemned were minors at the time the crimes were committed.
On Tuesday afternoon the sentences were put on hold, local officials and relatives said. The delay was ordered by Prince Faisal bin Khaled al-Saud, the governor of Asir province, where the case took place, one official said. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Tuesday, March 05, 2013
