Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sri Lankan domestic servant today. She was convicted of murdering her employer’s baby.
Rizana Nafeek smothered the infant to death after an argument with the child’s mother, her employer, said the ministry in a statement carried by SPA.
She was beheaded in the Dawadmi province near Riyadh.
Nafeek who was only 17 when the incident occurred in 2005, had always maintained that the baby had choked to death when drinking from a bottle.
Allah is great, merciful.
It’s a horrifying story but I’m having a difficult time seeing how this is any worse than American justice. The death penalty is atrocious no matter where or how it’s carried out.
Oh, it’s not better than American justice. The US death penalty is archaic and inhumane. So were the actions of this woman and the Suadi justice system.
“Saudi justice” is an oxymoron.
#1 Tabby Lavalamp
About the only way that it’s worse is that the Saudis do it more often, but this does not make me feel any better about the U.S. criminal system.
It’s worse than American justice in that I have absolutely no faith that a Sri Lankan domestic servant would have received a fair trial.
Now, yes, the American justice system is atrociously unfair in capital cases (other cases too), but (1) the number of capital crimes is lower than in Saudi Arabia, and (2) the racism that is frequently behind the injustice is actually even worse in Saudi Arabia than it is in America.
I’d rather be a black low-income American charged with a crime in the U.S. than a Sri Lankan domestic servant charged with a crime in Saudi Arabia, though both situations are god-awful.
What’s the difference between “Saudi justice” and “American justice”?
It’s not the number of false and easily railroaded convictions. And it’s not the sociopathic xenophobia. Both countries have that.
The difference is, the Saudis who have power have both tendencies themselves. They would rather go out of their way to blame a foreigner than investigate and punish one of their own.
For example, the case of the “Saudi Six”, six foreigners tortured into confessing that they “bombed and murdered” a Briton living in Saudi Arabia. No attempt was made to investigate or link similar bombings which happened after the convictions. Later bombings were suspected to be the work of islamic extremists.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3134725.stm
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Suspects-in-Saudi-blasts-claim-innocence-1100110.php
One has to wonder if the six men were let go because they were men, because they were white, because they came from western countries, or all three. The Sri Lankan woman murdered by the regime had three strikes against her, she never had a chance.
Also, the USA no longer execute juveniles. The woman was only 17 when the alleged murder was committed. (I’m saying alleged as I’ve not read details and as other commenters have noted, she would not have had a fair trial).