One man killed – eight men beheaded – Saudi Arabia

  I picked up the following news item on a google alert along with another horrific item telling of the inhumane treatment of Sri Lankan housemaids who have been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.

The women had run away from employers who had tortured or sexually abused them. Protests have been made in the streets in Saudi Arabia objecting to the misrepresentation of Muslim law.

With so many migrant labourers working in foreign countries in these times, isn’t it time we had an effective legal channel to  which they could appeal?

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Saudi beheading of eight Bangladesh workers
condemned

By Anbarasan Ethirajan
BBC News, Dhaka

There are many thousands of
Bangladeshi migrant workers across the Middle East

The public execution of eight Bangladeshi migrant workers in Saudi Arabia has been condemned by a leading human rights group in Bangladesh, Ain O Salish Kendra.

The workers were beheaded in public in Riyadh on Friday after they were found
guilty of killing an Egyptian in 2007.

Three other Bangladeshis were sentenced to prison terms and flogging in the
same case.

More than two million Bangladeshis work in Saudi Arabia.

The human rights group says the execution of Bangladeshi workers should be
condemned by anyone who cares for humanity.

It says that although the executions were carried out in accordance with
Saudi law, the public beheading of the workers will cause immense suffering and
trauma for their family members back at home.

It points out that often foreign workers don’t understand Saudi court
proceedings in Arabic and they rarely get lawyers to represent their case.

It has urged the Bangladeshi government to offer legal assistance to migrant
workers facing trial.

The money sent home by migrant workers in Bangladesh play a crucial role in
the country’s economy.

Amnesty International says since the end of the holy month of Ramadan,
executions have resumed in Saudi Arabia at an alarming rate.

The latest beheadings bring the total number of executions in the country
this year to 58, more than twice the figure for the whole of 2010.

It says many of those executed in recent years have been foreign nationals,
mostly migrant workers from developing countries.

It has called on the Saudi government for an immediate moratorium on
executions and to commute all death sentences.