Saudi Execution: Brutal, Inhuman and Illegal?

CNN ^ | Fri January 11, 2013 | Jo Becker

[nickcarraway]

Rizana Nafeek was a child herself -- 17 years old, according to her birth certificate -- when a four-month-old baby died in her care in Saudi Arabia. She had migrated from Sri Lanka only weeks earlier to be a domestic worker for a Saudi family.

Although Rizana said the baby died in a choking accident, Saudi courts convicted her of murder and sentenced her to death. On Wednesday, the Saudi government carried out the sentence in a gruesome fashion, by beheading Rizana.

Rizana's case was rife with problems from the beginning. A recruitment agency in Sri Lanka knew she was legally too young to migrate, but she had falsified papers to say she was 23. After the baby died, Rizana gave a confession that she said was made under duress -- she later retracted it. She had no lawyer to defend her until after she was sentenced to death and no competent interpreter during her trial. Her sentence violated international law, which prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed before age 18.

Rizana's fate should arouse international outrage. But it should also spotlight the precarious existence of other domestic workers. At least 1.5 million work in Saudi Arabia alone and more than 50 million -- mainly women and girls -- are employed worldwide according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

[Vermont Lt]

Agree 100%.

There are those in the world who would abolish our death penalty.

[Max in Utah]

As slave holders, they can be, and frequently are, as bad or worse than the most terrible plantation masters ever among the Western nations.

Arabs imported slaves from Africa for centuries, maybe millions in total. However, unlike those brought to the Western Hemisphere they seem to have very few present day descendants... why is that, do you suppose?

[publius911]

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nickcarraway.

[RipSawyer]

I have a very great desire to own a real Vorpal blade, the Tulgey woods next to my home are full of Jubjub birds and at least one Jabberwock. The frumious Bandersnatches are no longer a local problem though, they have all gone to Washington, DC. The most frumious of all is the supreme leader now. A Jabberwock is bad but nothing at all compared to a jabbering flock of frumious Bandersnatches. You have to pass one to realize all the terrifying things that are in it. Worst of all are the frumious progressive Bandersnatches, they put forth all kinds of rules for others to live by but refuse to be governed by their own rules. They are a truly manxome foe. It would indeed be a frabjous day if they could all be banished from the Earth.