News / Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia hiring eight more executioners

Monday, 18 May 2015 10:57 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 18 May 2015 10:57 PM ]

A Saudi Arabian executioner shows off his sword. (Rex_Shutterstock image)

Saudi Arabia has started advertising for eight new executioners to deal with the escalating number of death sentences being issued in the country.

An advert was posted on the country’s civil service jobs portal calling for “religious functionaries” with no special qualifications for “executing a judgment of death”, Sputnik reported on Monday.

According to a downloadable pdf application form for the advertised job, apart from carrying out executions - usually carried out by beheading -the position would also involve carrying out amputations on people convicted of lesser offences.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani national convicted of drug trafficking, bringing the number of executions in the kingdom since the start of this year to 84.

Last year, 88 people were decapitated in the Kingdom, the Human Rights Watch said.

In recent months, a significant number of foreign nationals and workers have been beheaded in the kingdom, triggering an outcry from human rights organizations.

On April 16, Saudi Arabia beheaded an Indonesian female domestic worker, just two days after executing another woman from the Southeast Asian country.

Amnesty International says Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world.

Muslim clerics have also slammed Riyadh for indicting and then executing suspects without giving them a chance to defend themselves, describing the Saudi authorities as uncivilized.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi law.

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Human Rights Watch