Saudi Arabia to Abolish Beheading; will hire “Firing Squads” to shoot people to death instead
Saudi Arabia is modernizing. Actually, it has been forced to, because there is a huge shortage of the required skill set. Beheading. You see, they don’t have enough swordsmen in their kingdom. Or those that are there arrive late to the venues, which gives more life to the person to be beheaded than would be warranted.
So, keeping with the times, they are abolishing the Beheadings totally.
Now, they would instead have Firing Squads and shoot the people to death instead. A joint Saudi committee comprising representatives of the ministries of interior, justice and health is evaluating the new change and feels satisfied, at least for now, that it is a “practical” solution, given the labor shortage situation.
“This solution seems practical, especially in light of shortages in official swordsmen or their belated arrival to execution yards in some incidents; the aim is to avoid interruption of the regularly-taken security arrangements,” the committee said in a statement
In Saudi Arabia – Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking – result in death sentence.. and last year there were 76 beheadings in the kingdom.
There is, of course always tension between the International bodies and Saudi Arabia in this regard, but the Kingdom brushes it aside as “External Interference”.
The UN’s main human rights body on Friday expressed “deep dismay” at the beheading, while the European Union said it had asked Saudi authorities to commute the death penalty. Riyadh, however, rejected the statements as “external interference” in its domestic affairs.
Pity, they don’t bring up the “Second Amendment right to carry guns in the US” and the society’s wink-and-kill ethos, when confronted here. Maybe, now that they are shooting their criminals as opposed to beheading, they could argue there. At least Saudis are shooting the criminals! The US Senators on the Gun lobby are complicit in the shootings of toddlers!! So, rats ass to Human Rights BS! 🙂
Oh well.
featured image shows a beheading in Saudi Arabia.