Job Openings in Saudia Arabia as Execution Rate Soars

[Nutso]

http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-advertises- ... NlYwNzcg--

Saudi advertises for swordsmen as execution rate soars

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia advertised vacancies for eight executioners Tuesday after beheading nearly as many people since the start of the year as it did in the whole of 2014.

The civil service ministry said that no qualifications were necessary and that applicants would be exempted from the usual entrance exams.

It said that as well as beheadings, the successful candidates would be expected to carry out amputations ordered by the courts under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Amputation of one or both hands is a routine penalty for theft. Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death.

Most executions are carried out by beheading, but a few are carried out by firing squad, stoning or crucifixion.

All are carried out in public and video footage sometimes appears on the Internet despite a ban on filming.

In January, gruesome footage was posted of a Burmese woman protesting her innocence before being beheaded by a swordsman on a public street in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Ignoring her screams, the white-robed executioner forces her to lie down on the ground, near a pedestrian crossing, then severs her head with a curved sword.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim had been sentenced to death for killing her husband's six-year-old daughter.

The vacancies were advertised on the ministry's website in the "religious jobs" section.

Last year, Saudi Arabia executed 87 people, according to an AFP tally, ranking it third in the world for use of the death penalty.

Already this year, it has put 85 people to death in what human rights group Amnesty International has described as a "macabre spike".

On Tuesday, a convicted serial rapist of young girls was beheaded in Riyadh, SPA reported.

The interior ministry says the death penalty is an important deterrent.

But on a visit to Riyadh this month, French President Francois Hollande said capital punishment "should be banned".

[Mikey]

"...exempted from the usual entrance exams." I foresee macabre results from poorly-targeted strokes.

BTW, as a bit of a student of near- and middle-Eastern and western Asian swords, it seems like a curved blade like a scimitar or muhaddab would be the absolutely most inefficient type of blade for beheading. I suppose "curved blade" could refer to a reversed curve with the cutting edge on the inside of the curve, but the yatagan is a Turkic weapon and not traditional to Arabia.

[Atekimogus]

BTW, as a bit of a student of near- and middle-Eastern and western Asian swords, it seems like a curved blade like a scimitar or muhaddab would be the absolutely most inefficient type of blade for beheading.

Which might be the point using them?

A clean beheading is horrible. But a botched beheading is ten times worse.

[Mikey]

I'm not convinced. Convex-curved blades are great for horseback or very quick cutting strokes... not so much chopping. The point of a beheading is not just to kill the convict, but to make a symbolic example of him. The phrase "heads will roll" is very literally the reason for beheading - for everyone else to see that head falling off the block. A curved sword would perhaps cause more pain to the victim, but would more than likely glance off of the spine rather than sever it.

[Atekimogus]

I'm not convinced. Convex-curved blades are great for horseback or very quick cutting strokes... not so much chopping. The point of a beheading is not just to kill the convict, but to make a symbolic example of him. The phrase "heads will roll" is very literally the reason for beheading - for everyone else to see that head falling off the block. A curved sword would perhaps cause more pain to the victim, but would more than likely glance off of the spine rather than sever it.

Exactly. You'd probably need to hack into it a couple of times, blood splatting everywhere, while the victim might still be semi-alive and whatnot...it is much more brutal imho and ten times worse to watch.

But then...with the right sharpness and weight behind it.....it probably doesn't matter all that much if the thing has a slight curve or not.

[McAvoy]

There are videos out there. Most of them are two chop deals. The good ones are where the blade completely severs the spine but stops short. The bad ones are where the spine stops the blade.

Can't be any worse than the ones that get beheaded with a dull knife. The executioner saws the the head off with a knife.

Personally these types of people I wouldn't mind seeing their ass napalmed...