Since January of this year, 59 people have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia under the country's antiquated legal system based primarily around sharia law. In September alone, Saudi Arabia beheaded at least 8 people—twice the number of Western hostages featured in ISIS' barbaric execution videos.
In August those executed in Saudi Arabia were sentenced to death for crimes such as adultery, "sorcery," and leaving the Islam religion. In one case, four members of the same family were executed for "receiving large quantities of hashish," a sentence imposed on the basis of "forced confessions extracted through torture." The executions of people accused of petty crimes and on the basis of
'confessions' extracted through torture has become shamefully common in
Saudi Arabia," according to Amnesty International's Said Boumedouha.
Juan Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said that "beheadings as a form of execution is cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment and prohibited under international law under all
circumstances." But Saudi Arabia has oil and is the ally of the U.S. . . . in the meantime, ISIS pales in comparison but still garners infinitely more outrage.
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