Saudi Arabia court gives death penalty to man who renounced his Muslim faith

February 24, 2015 — Telegraph.co.uk reports: “An Islamic court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for renouncing his Muslim faith, the English-language daily Saudi Gazette reported on Tuesday.

The man, in his 20s, posted an online video ripping up a copy of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, and hitting it with a shoe, the newspaper reported.

Saudi Arabia, the United States’ top Arab ally and birthplace of Islam, follows the strict Wahhabi Sunni Muslim school and gives the clergy control over its justice system.

Under the Wahhabi interpretation of Sharia Islamic law, apostasy demands the death penalty, as do some other religious offences like sorcery, while blasphemy and criticism of senior Muslim clerics have incurred jail terms and corporal punishment.

Executions in Saudi Arabia are usually carried out by public beheading…”

Saudi executions set ‘unprecedented’ pace

March 4, 2015 — The Times of Israel reports: “Saudi Arabia has beheaded dozens of convicts, including foreign drug traffickers, since the start of the year in what Amnesty International calls an unprecedented pace of executions in the kingdom.

Those put to the sword have included five Pakistanis, an Indian, two Jordanians, two Syrians and a Yemeni, with few foreign governments willing to publicly appeal for clemency from the wealthy Gulf state.

Three beheadings in a single day on Tuesday — one for rape and two for murder — took the total so far this year to 38, according to an AFP tally.

That is about three times the number over the same period in 2014, but observers disagree about the reasons.

There was also a surge in the latter months of last year, toward the end of King Abdullah’s reign. He died on January 23 and was succeeded by King Salman…”

Iran blinds acid attacker in ‘eye for an eye’ punishment

March 6, 2015 — The Times of Israel reports: “An Iranian man convicted of blinding another man in an acid attack was blinded in one eye himself this week in the government’s literal application of the Biblical law of retaliation.

It marked the first time Iran has carried out such a punishment, according to The Guardian.

Under Sharia law in Iran, retribution for crimes against persons is allowed, but clemency is encouraged. Victims and their families have the final say in such matters and punishments can be stopped.

The man in question was not identified but, according to the report, medics gouged out his left eye at Rajai-Shahr prison in the city of Karaj, northwest of the capital Tehran.

The man was found guilty of throwing acid in the face of another man five years ago in the city of Qom. He was sentenced to have both his eyes removed, serve a prison sentence of 10 years and pay a fine.

On Tuesday, his victim decided to postpone the loss of his right eye by six months. He will be allowed to plead to keep his remaining eye, according to the report…” (In Christianity ones love for others is to be practiced: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” Ephesians 4:31 and 32. See the next report.)