April 4
SAUDI ARABIA----executions
6 Somalis beheaded in Saudi Arabia for armed robbery
6 Somalis were beheaded the Mecca region on Monday after being convicted
of a spate of armed robberies against taxi drivers, the Saudi interior
ministry said.
The 6 were convicted of "forming a gang which dragged taxi drivers to
remote places, beat them up, threatened them with a knife and stole their
money... as well as stealing a number of taxis," the ministry said in a
statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
It named the 6 as Abdullah bin Adam Abdullah, Abdul Fattah bin Ali Hassan,
Hussein bin Harun Mahmud, Ali bin Sheikh Yussef, Abdul Nur bin Mohammad
Wahili and Abdullah bin Hassan Abdi.
The latest executions bring to 36 the number of beheadings announced by
Saudi authorities so far this year, more than the number of executions for
the whole of 2004.
35 people were beheaded in the kingdom in 2004, according to an AFP tally
based on official statements.
Executions are generally carried out in public in Saudi Arabia, which
applies a strict form of Islamic law. The death penalty is meted out for
murder, rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.
(source: Agence France Presse)
JORDAN:
Jordan activists face death penalty----Riot police secure the area around
the court during the trial
Jordan's state security court has endorsed death sentences against 2
activists convicted of plotting attacks against Jewish and Western
tourists during millennium celebrations. The military tribunal in Amman on
Monday also upheld jail sentences against 7 other defendants at the third
appeal since they were convicted in September 2000 of planning bombings
using sulphuric and nitric acids against tourist sites in Jordan.
Judicial sources said lawyers for alleged ringleader Khadir Abu Hushar and
his fellow accused, who consistently charged that the verdict was unfair
and that testimony was made under duress, are expected to appeal again.
Abu Hushar and Usama Sammar face the death penalty while 2 others have had
their death sentences commuted to life in prison while the rest face jail
sentences of between seven-and-a-half and 10 years.
The men were among a group of 28 defandants who went on trial in 2000,
including 6 who were aquitted, and 12 fugitives.
(source: Aljazeera)
