Saudi Arabia's Treatment of Foreign Workers Under Fire after Beheading of Sri Lankan Maid
THE OBSERVER: The execution of 24-year-old Rizana Nafeek has cast a spotlight on the plight of dozens of migrant workers on death row in Saudi Arabia

More than 45 foreign maids are facing execution on death row in Saudi Arabia, the Observer has learned, amid growing international outrage at the treatment of migrant workers.

The startling figure emerged after Saudi Arabia beheaded a 24-year-old Sri Lankan domestic worker, Rizana Nafeek, in the face of appeals for clemency from around the world.

The exact number of maids on death row is almost certainly higher, but Saudi authorities do not publish official figures. Indonesians are believed to account for the majority of those facing a death sentence. Human rights groups say 45 Indonesian women are on death row, and five have exhausted the legal process.

Figures for other nationalities are harder to come by. Rights groups say they believe there are also Sri Lankan, Filipina, Indian and Ethiopian maids facing the death penalty.

Nafeek's execution drew condemnation from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, both of which have campaigned against the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. They say many migrant domestic workers, drawn to the Middle East by the prospect of employment with well-off families, face abuse.

"Some domestic workers find kind employers who treat them well, but others face intense exploitation and abuse, ranging from months of hard work without pay to physical violence to slavery-like conditions," said Nisha Varia from Human Rights Watch. There are about 1.5 million foreign maids in Saudi Arabia, including about 375,000 Sri Lankans.

An International Labour Organisation report last week warned that an estimated 52.6 million domestic workers around the world lack legal rights and protections. But Varia said Saudi Arabia posed unique problems because legal protections were weaker and the chance of access to justice more remote.

"The Saudi justice system is characterised by arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and harsh punishments," she said. "Migrants are at high risk of being victims of spurious charges. A domestic worker facing abuse or exploitation from her employer might run away and then be accused of theft. Employers may accuse domestic workers, especially those from Indonesia, of witchcraft. Victims of rape and sexual assault are at risk of being accused of adultery and fornication." » | Gethin Chamberlain | Sunday, January 13, 2013

Al Jazeera Speaks to Family of Executed Sri Lankan Maid
Al Jazeera has spoken to the family of the Sri Lankan maid beheaded last week in Saudi Arabia for killing an infant. Her family continues to say that she was only 17 and not capable of hurting anyone. The Saudi government has condemned world reaction to the beheading, saying the maid had plotted and killed the infant by suffocation. Minelle Fernandez reports.

Saudi Arabia Rejects Maid Beheading Criticism
AL JAZEERA: Saudi Arabia 'deplores' international condemnation over beheading of a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing baby.

Saudi Arabia criticised world reaction to its beheading a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing her employer's baby, the official Saudi news agency SPA reported.

Riyadh "deplores the statements made... over the execution of a Sri Lankan maid who had plotted and killed an infant by suffocating him to death, one week after she arrived in the kingdom," the government spokesman said.

Rizana Nafeek was beheaded on Wednesday in a case that sparked widespread international condemnation, including from rights groups which said she was just 17 when she was charged with murdering the baby in 2005.

Nafeek was found guilty of smothering the infant after an argument with the child's mother.

The case soured diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka which on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Saudi Arabia in protest.

The government spokesman condemned what he called "wrong information on the case," and denied that the maid was a minor when she committed the crime. » | Source: Agencies | Monday, January 14, 2013

Tribal Savagery! Saudi Arabia Defies International Protests with Beheading of Sri Lankan Maid

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia defied international protests yesterday by beheading a Sri Lankan maid convicted of smothering an infant child, despite her being aged just 17 at the time of the offence.

A sword-wielding executioner carried out the death sentence on Rizana Nafeek in the town of Dawadmy, near Riyadh, just hours after the country's Interior Ministry ratified the court verdict against her.

Nafeek was given the death sentence in 2007 for smothering the infant while working as the child's nanny. She had been accused of killing the four-month-old boy two years earlier following an argument with his mother.

Nafeek however, who was aged only 17 at the time of the alleged offence, insisted that the child had choked to death on milk during a bottle field [sic].

The Sri Lankan government appealed against the death penalty but the Saudi Supreme Court upheld it in 2010. Despite an international campaign for clemency, that verdict was finally ratified by the country's Interior Ministry yesterday.

The announcement the execution had taken place shocked Nafeek's supporters who had expected the government of Sri Lanka to enter into negotiations to pay blood money for clemency. » | Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Wednesday, January 19, 2013

Filipino Man Wins Last Minute Stay of Execution for $1 Million Blood Money

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A Filipino man won a stay of execution hours before he was due to be beheaded for murdering his landlord in Saudi Arabia as his family were given four months to raise $1 million (£630,000) blood money.

Joselito Zapanta, a Philippine construction worker was sentenced to death after killing the Sudanese landlord in 2009.

The relatives of Salah Ibrahim, who was killed in a dispute with Zapanta, 34, over unpaid rent, however agreed to waive the sentence in return for blood money.

The predawn decision to put off the sentence came after a Philippine official handed in a written plea for more time to King Abdullah, the Saudi ruler.

Raul Hernandez, a spokesman for the Philippine government, said the Saudi government had given more time but could not defy the wishes of the bereaved.

"The family has been given four months to raise four million riyals," he said. » | Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Taliban Behead 17 Afghan Partygoers

THE GUARDIAN: Officials say 15 men and two women killed as punishment for attending a mixed-sex party with music and dancing

Fifteen men and two women have been found beheaded in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. Officials said the victims were killed by Taliban insurgents as punishment for attending a mixed-sex party with music and dancing.

The bodies were found in a house near the Musa Qala district, 46 miles north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, on Monday, said the district governor Nimatullah, who goes by only one name.

"The victims threw a late-night dance and music party when the Taliban attacked," on Sunday night, Nimatullah told Reuters.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility. » | Reuters in Kandahar | Monday, August 27, 2012

Muslim Convert to Christianity Beheaded in Tunisia - Michael Coren

THE CHRISTIAN POST: Tunisian Man Beheaded For Converting to Christianity: A graphic video of a Christian man being beheaded by Muslim extremists for converting from Islamto Christianity was recently shown on talk shows in Canada and Egypt. Footage of the incident, which reportedly took place in Tunisia, shows a young man being held down like "an animal" with a knife to his throat. » | Lawrence D. Jones, Christian Post Reporter | Wednesday, July 11, 2012

États-Unis : Un Américain inculpé pour meurtre avec décapitation
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Un Américain de 37 ans a été arrêté à Nashville après avoir décapité son colocataire. La tête de la victime été découverte dans une poubelle derrière la petite maison où il vivait.

Un Américain de 37 ans a été arrêté vendredi et inculpé du meurtre avec décapitation de son colocataire. Le corps tatoué, sans tête et à moitié dévêtu de la victime de 48 ans avait été retrouvé jeudi partiellement décomposé dans un champ dans les quartiers sud de Nashville.

Sa tête avait ensuite été découverte dans une poubelle derrière la petite maison où il vivait, a indiqué la police locale dans un communiqué. Le meurtrier présumé cohabitait avec la victime, sa femme et les trois enfants de celle-ci. » | ats/Newsnet | vendredi 13 juillet 2012

THE TENNESSEAN: Nashville tattoo artist admits to decapitating man, police say: Man says he killed roommate in argument over woman, police say » | Brian Haas, The Tennessean | Saturday, July 14, 2012

Terror Group Wants Somalia Rid of Christians
CBN.COM: SOMALIA -- Somalia's Islamist terror group al Shabab wants to rid the Muslim country of all Christians and is specifically targeting Christian converts from Islam.

Al Shabab recently joined with al Qaeda and wants Sharia law implemented in the country.

An al Shabab video that swept the Internet in September 2008 shows the brutal beheading of 25-year-old aid worker Mansour Mohammed. His crime? Mohammed converted to Christianity in 2005. Blindfolded, Tortured » | Gary Lane | CBN News Sr. International Correspondent | Thursday, April 12, 2012

Saudi Arabia Beheads Two Drug Traffickers
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded two men convicted of drug trafficking in the ultraconservative kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

Mohammed Abdulmalik Ajaj, a Syrian, was arrested for smuggling "207,000 banned narcotic pills," the ministry said in a statement published on state news agency SPA.

He was beheaded in the northern province of [Al] Jawf.

Separately, the ministry said a Saudi, Hamad al-Yami, was beheaded in Jizan, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, for trafficking hashish. » | AFP | Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Saudi Beheads Man for Sexual Assault
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A Saudi man was beheaded on Friday in Tabuk in the ultraconservative kingdom's north after being convicted of sexually assaulting another man's wife, a statement from the interior ministry said.

Adel bin Mohammed Assiri forcibly entered the man's apartment and assaulted the man's wife, hitting her, photographing her naked and attempting to rape her, said the statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

His execution brings to 32 the number of people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP tally based on official and human rights group reports. Continue reading and comment » | Saturday, July 16, 2011

British Teacher Faces Beheading for Friend's Death in Saudi Arabia
MAIL ONLINE: A British teacher could be beheaded in Saudi Arabia if found guilty of murdering a friend with whom he came to blows during a heavy drinking session.

Formal charges could soon be laid against Andrew Cannon, 41, for the death of 57-year-old Robert Colman.

Cannon, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, admits there was a fight, but insists he did not cause his friend’s death.

The two men worked as English teachers in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. » | Daily Mail Reporter | Monday, March 28, 2011

A True American "Moderate" Muslim Beheads Wife

Somalia: ‘The Religion of Love and Peace and Compassion and Mercy’ Has Been at It Again!
TIMES ONLINE: Seven people accused of renouncing Islam and spying for the Government were beheaded in Somalia yesterday in a move that underlined the growing authority of the country’s Islamist insurgents.

The extremist al-Shabaab group is battling the interim Government in Mogadishu and has implemented a strict interpretation of Sharia in the parts of the country that it controls.

“Al-Shabaab told us that they were beheaded for being Christian followers and spies,” a relative said after the killings. A witness described seeing the decapitated bodies in the back of a lorry in the town of Baidoa.

The killings were the largest number to take place at one time. They were the latest in a series of beheadings, amputations and stonings to death ordered by al-Shabaab, which is accused of having links to al-Qaeda and is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US.

In areas that al-Shabaab controls, including most of southern Somalia and much of Mogadishu, numerous others accused of collaborating with the Government or committing crimes such as adultery, rape, theft or murder have been publicly executed, flogged or had amputations ordered in recent weeks. Seven Somalis beheaded by extremists for 'spying for government' >>> Tristan McConnell in Nairobi | Saturday, July 11, 2009

Chop Chop Square
THE WALRUS: Inside Saudi Arabia’s brutal justice system

A SLENDER SWORD — four feet of shining steel, curved at the end — hovers high above a kneeling figure shrouded in white. Only the kneeler’s neck is exposed. Sixty or so men watch from the edge of a granite courtyard, behind a patchy line of eight soldiers in tan uniforms. The man wielding the sword looms high, almost spectral, in a flowing white dishdasha and a red-checked headcloth. He is ready to swing but then steps back. He huddles with two police and the one person who can make this stop: the victim of the crime that’s being punished.

The huddle breaks, and the executioner retakes his position, left of the condemned. He sets his right leg forward and his left leg back, as if about to stretch his left calf. Sunlight flashes on the blade as he draws it above his head.

This is Saudi Arabia, one of the last places on earth where capital punishment is a public spectacle. Decapitation awaits murderers, but the death penalty also applies to many other crimes, such as armed robbery, rape, adultery, drug use and trafficking, and renouncing Islam. There’s a woman on death row now for witchcraft, and the charge is based partly on a man’s accusation that her spell made him impotent. Saudi Arabia executed some 1,750 convicts between 1985 and 2008, yet reliable information about the practice is scarce. In Riyadh, beheadings happen at 9 a.m. any given day of the week, and there is no advance notice. There is also no written penal code, so questions of illegality depend on the on-the-spot interpretations of police and judges.

What’s certain is that the Koran guides the justice system, with some laws passed to address areas the holy book does not. The Saudi interpretation of the Koran discourages all forms of evidence other than confessions and eyewitness accounts in capital trials, on the theory that doing otherwise would leave too much discretion to the judge. But at any time until the sword strikes, a victim’s family can pardon the condemned — usually for a cash settlement of at least two million riyals ($690,000 or so) from the convict or his family. >>> By Adam St. Patrick | Monday, May 18, 2009

Support The Walrus! from The Walrus Magazine on Vimeo.

Shelley Ambrose, Executive Director of the Walrus Foundation,
talks about how you can support The Walrus. Email Shelley for 
more details at shelley.ambrose@walrusmagazine.com

Two Saudi Police Officers Beheaded for Rape
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

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Australia) >>>

Yes, They Can … Impose Sharia Law
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM: Sen. Barack Obama became president-elect on the uplifting, if inexact, slogan, "Yes, we can."

This week, there is growing evidence that people who have in mind doing away with the presidency of the United States - and all other aspects of our secular, democratic and constitutional form of government - are similarly convinced of their inevitable success. Judging by the sheer audacity of their agenda, "Yes, they can" would appear an apt description of the prospects for the Saudis and other champions of the totalitarian program they call Shariah.

In the run-up to an emergency summit outgoing President Bush has called to address the now-global financial crisis, the oil-rich Islamists of the Persian Gulf led by Saudi Arabia have not only established that their petrodollars are indispensable to any solution. They also seem to have secured the Bush administration's acquiescence to the sinister strings attached to any bailout of the West in which they might participate.

Specifically, the Saudis and their friends want the United States to join those, particularly in Europe, who have accommodated themselves to Shariah. No, we are assured, they aren't taking about the brutal theo-political-legal code that features such barbaric practices as beheadings, floggings, stonings, amputations, female genital mutilation and mysogeny more generally.

All they want, those in the know insist, is for Washington to encourage Wall Street - more and more of which is owned by the U.S. government - to embrace Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF). A Treasury Department seminar convened last week depicted SCF as nothing more than a kind of socially responsible investing vehicle that respects Muslim religious beliefs by eschewing interest-bearing transactions and those involving pork and "sin" stocks. So, what's the big deal? The Catholics, Methodists and Jews have their funds, why not the Muslims?

What makes the Shariah-Compliant Finance gambit both a big and troublesome "deal" is that, unlike these other religious traditions, Shariah's adherents are pursuing a global theocracy. They believe they must impose their agenda on everybody else, religious and secular alike, using violence if necessary. And SCF is explicitly described by leading practitioners as a complement to violent holy war: "financial jihad" and "jihad with money."

In other words, there is no such thing as free-standing Shariah-Compliant Finance. According to all of the recognized authorities and institutions of Islam, Shariah is a unified, indivisible program to which all faithful Muslims must adhere comprehensively.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the Saudis & Co. are not simply seeking to insinuate Shariah-Compliant Finance into our capital markets. They are also advancing creation of a parallel Shariah-governed society through various other means. >>> By Frank J Gaffney Jr | November 12, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

More Barbarity from the World of Barbarians!
DAILY MAIL: An Iraqi couple were beheaded in front of their children by their cousins because the man wore Western-style trousers.

Three suspected al Qaeda militants, including two sisters, beheaded their uncle and his wife, forcing the couple's children to watch, according to Iraqi police.

The killing came because the school guard Youssef al-Hayali was considered an infidel because he did not pray and wore western-style trousers.

The militants, later arrested in Diyala province northwest of Baghdad, killed Hayali and his wife Zeinab Kamel at the all-boys school in Jalawlah.

Sunni Arab communities across Iraq have been turning against al Qaeda because of its indiscriminate killings and strict interpretation of Islam, which includes a ban on smoking in public and forcing schoolgirls to wear veils. Iraq: Sisters behead uncle and aunt in front of their children - because he wore Western-style trousers (more

Mark Alexander

Beheadings Galore in Saudi Arabia!
BBC: The Saudi authorities have executed three more prisoners convicted in separate murder cases, bringing to eight the number beheaded in two days.

One of those beheaded by sword was a Saudi national convicted of beating to death his grandmother.

The other two - one a Saudi, the other from Yemen - were reported to have shot their victims.

The kingdom has executed more than 100 people this year - one of the highest figures on record.

Thursday's executions took place in Salel province near the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the interior ministry said.

On Wednesday, five Saudi men were beheaded in the city of Medina after being convicted of raping and killing a young boy. Saudis behead three more convicts (more)

Barbaric Practices of 'Our Friends and Allies': Saudi Arabia to Behead Teenage Maid

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: The imminent execution of a teenage maid in Saudi Arabia drew fierce criticism yesterday and provoked condemnation of the kingdom's prolific use of capital punishment.
The case has brought fresh attention to the draconian Saudi criminal justice system which is expected this year to set a new record in its use of the death sentence.

Human rights campaigners yesterday urged the authorities not to behead a 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid found guilty of killing a baby in her care. 

According to the Saudi authorities, Rizana Nafeek admitted strangling the four-month-old boy while feeding him with a bottle. 

But Nafeek, whose job was not meant to include child care, has denied making any such admission. She claims the child had begun to choke before losing consciousness in spite of her desperate efforts to clear his airway.

Tonight is the deadline for appeals in the case. Unless the Saudi authorities change the sentence or the parents of the victim offer clemency, Nafeek will have her head cut off by an executioner wielding a sword in front of a crowd of onlookers. Saudis prepare to behead teenage maid (more) By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent

Mark Alexander