Brothers Beheaded for Marijuana Trafficking in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is apparently very strict when it comes to drug trafficking. Four brothers were reportedly beheaded after they were found attempting to transport the illegal substance into the kingdom.
Two sets of brothers Hadi and Awad al-Motleq and Mufarraj and Ali al-Yami al-Yami were sentenced to execution via beheading after they were discovered attempting to transport marijuana into Saudi Arabia , the Al Jazeera reports. The execution was said to have been carried out at the country’s southern border in Najran. There was no mention from the government on when the beheading exacly happened.
The sentence was carried out despite pleas from the Amnesty International and from various international human rights groups. Amnesty was reportedly contacted by relatives of the accused asking for help. They feared the beheading was “imminent.” However, their calls for help were soon halted by the interior ministry who told them to stop asking aid from the group.
“The Saudi Arabian authorities must halt all executions,” Amnesty International said.
According to the site, the group claimed the beheading of the brothers was reportedly brought “on the basis of forced confessions extracted through torture”.
Inquisitr adds the brothers were reportedly beaten and deprived of any sleep. However, authorities denied the allegations claiming they don’t torture captives before the beheading.
Saudi Arabia now has a total of 17 executions in a matter of two weeks according to the Amnesty’s report, “a rate of more than one execution per day.” Likewise, the recent beheading of the brothers tallies up the number of executions carried out by Saudi Arabia for this year to 32, according to the AFP news agency.
Amnesty representative Said Boumedouha claimed “the recent increase in executions in Saudi Arabia is a deeply disturbing deterioration.”
“The authorities must act immediately to halt this cruel practice,” he said.
According to Inquisitr, Islamic law in Saudi Arabia is based on subjective interpretations. The Sharia Islamic legal code is reportedly not classified accordingly. Thus, individual judges can exert their own power in basing verdicts and punishments based on their own interpretation of the code.
The site suggests Saudi Arabia takes beheading as an acceptable sentence for a minor crime of transporting marijuana into the country.
By Tanya Diente | August 20, 2014 3:09 PM EST
(Brothers Beheaded for Marijuana Trafficking in Saudi Arabia)