by LIZA PONOMARENKO
The condemned, regardless of gender, is given a tranquilizer and taken into what is usually a public square after a daily midday prayer. The prisoner cannot see anything, only imagine the gathering public from behind a blindfold.
The police lay out a large sixteen-foot sheet on the ground. The prisoner is put in the middle; barefoot and shackled. He or she is made to face Mecca before the imminent execution. Next, an Interior Ministry official reads aloud the name of the accused and the crime. Soon, the executioner swings around a traditional Arab scimitar before approaching the prisoner. He jabs the prisoner in the back causing the head to rise on reflex and, with a single swing, decapitates them. A trained doctor standing by then sews the head back onto the body as it’s taken away in an ambulance and buried in an unmarked grave in a prison cemetery. Amnesty International reports the bodies hanging up on poles to serve as a deterrent to crime, though the frequency of this occurrence is uncertain. However, this is the reality surrounding most beheadings in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is a nation that practices modern capital punishment. Any execution is gruesome, but there must be international awareness and discussion about the practice and the excessive brutality that accompanies each incident.
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(Thanks to Feroz Mehdi)