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Last-ditch plea to stop crucifixion of jewellery thief in Saudi Arabia
Human rights groups have issued last minute appeals to the Saudi authorities to stop the planned execution of a jewellery thief sentenced to be crucified later on Tuesday.
In a statement, Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said: "It will be outrageous if the Saudi authorities go ahead with these executions" Photo: GETTY
Sarhan al-Mashayekh is one of seven men whose death sentences were confirmed by King Abdullah on Saturday. The other six will be shot by firing squad.
Mashayekh will be executed at the same time and then, to fulfil his additional sentence, his body will be displayed to the public in a cruciform position for three days.
The seven were convicted of armed robbery, but one of the men, in an interview yesterday from his prison cell, claimed that the group was unarmed when they stole jewellery from a string of shops in the southern Saudi Arabian city of Abha in 2004 and 2005. He said that confessions to armed robbery, used as the basis of their trial for robbery in January 2006, were beaten out of the men.
Amnesty said that that the sentences were in any case excessive, while Human Rights Watch added that at least two of the group were minors at the time of the crimes, and none was over 20. "Their trial lasted only a few hours, and they were denied any legal representation or appeal," an Amnesty spokesman said.
"Security officers who were present at the trial warned them that if they withdrew their 'confessions' they would be tortured again, and members of their families, including their mothers, would be brought to prison and tortured in front of them.
Last-ditch plea to stop crucifixion of jewellery thief in Saudi Arabia - Telegraph
Human rights groups have issued last minute appeals to the Saudi authorities to stop the planned execution of a jewellery thief sentenced to be crucified later on Tuesday.
In a statement, Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said: "It will be outrageous if the Saudi authorities go ahead with these executions" Photo: GETTY
Sarhan al-Mashayekh is one of seven men whose death sentences were confirmed by King Abdullah on Saturday. The other six will be shot by firing squad.
Mashayekh will be executed at the same time and then, to fulfil his additional sentence, his body will be displayed to the public in a cruciform position for three days.
The seven were convicted of armed robbery, but one of the men, in an interview yesterday from his prison cell, claimed that the group was unarmed when they stole jewellery from a string of shops in the southern Saudi Arabian city of Abha in 2004 and 2005. He said that confessions to armed robbery, used as the basis of their trial for robbery in January 2006, were beaten out of the men.
Amnesty said that that the sentences were in any case excessive, while Human Rights Watch added that at least two of the group were minors at the time of the crimes, and none was over 20. "Their trial lasted only a few hours, and they were denied any legal representation or appeal," an Amnesty spokesman said.
"Security officers who were present at the trial warned them that if they withdrew their 'confessions' they would be tortured again, and members of their families, including their mothers, would be brought to prison and tortured in front of them.
Last-ditch plea to stop crucifixion of jewellery thief in Saudi Arabia - Telegraph
