Trigger warning: This post deals with execution and murder and may be distressing for some readers.
Today is a dark, dark day for human rights.
A suspected mentally ill woman who killed her allegedly abusive employer has been beheaded in Saudi Arabia.
Siti Zainab is the 60th person to be executed in the Arab state this year.
The Indonesian maid languished in custody for 15 years, not knowing her fate.
Authorities were waiting until the youngest child of the victim reached adulthood to see whether the family wanted the woman killed or pardoned, the Saudi Gazette reports.
In the Australian legal system, the woman – who claimed to have been abused by her victim – may have had a defence to the murder charge.
Or, if she was found to be both guilty of murder and mentally ill, her sentence would have been served in a forensic hospital, where she would have received treatment for her condition.
Either outcome is a far cry from the inhumane and undignified death that befell her on Tuesday, when she was beheaded without the knowledge of her family.
Related: “I’ve had a cup of tea with a man who executed 62 people.”
Amnesty International reports that, in November 1999, Ms Zainab “confessed” to stabbing her female employer 18 times during a police interrogation, at which she had no consular assistance and was believed to be mentally ill.
Before her arrest, she had sent two letters stating her employer and her employer’s son had treated her with cruelty.
She never had any legal representation.
Regardless, she was sentenced to death.
The Indonesian Government and Ms Zainab’s family were not notified of the pending execution, Amnesty International reports.
“Imposing the death penalty and executing someone with a suspected mental illness smacks of a basic lack of humanity,” Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa programme director Philip Luther said.
“This practice has been widely condemned on the world stage and Saudi Arabia should take this opportunity to reconsider its stance on the death penalty.”
He said Saudi Arabia had a “shocking spike” in executions this year, with at least 60 people executed already in 2015 – mostly by beheading – compared to 90 executions in all of 2014.
The UN has called on all states not to execute or impose the death penalty “on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder”.
Read more: The last words of a woman beheaded earlier this week: “I did not kill.”
Under the Kingdom’s strict version of Islamic sharia law, a number of crimes – murder, rape, drug trafficking, apostasy (deserting one’s religion) and armed robbery – are punishable by death.
Four years ago, Indonesia announced a moratorium on sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia, but two years ago the countries signed an agreement to resume the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers, the Malaysian Insider reports.
Top Comments
I'm waiting for a huge awakening & upheaval to occur from within Saudi Arabia.
Most of all from the most abused members of that society - the women
The more self-righteous men of that society think that it's immense wealth will protect them and allow them to continue their wicked human rights abuses.........it won't.
It will start with ridicule and a few legal wins............that country's downfall will be fascinating to watch.
Don't hold your breath. As for the human rights abuses towards foreign workers, many of the Saudi women are just as bad the men. When female patients are admitted to hospital, a female family usually accompanies them along with a maid (foreign worker) to get them cups of tea etc. The treatment of these maids often bordered on criminal. The jails are full of maids who have been mistreated, their work visas not renewed by their employer, therefore they end up imprisoned. As disgusting as these abuses are, I wouldn't be hoping for the country's downfall. The wealthy will flee, leaving the average Saudi to the mercies of ISIS and even more insane versions of Fundamentalist Islam.
Essentially any revolution is generally snuffed out quickly or keeping the masses happy by paying them good money. One of my many criticisms of Saudi Arabia.
Human rights denied to a female in a middle eastern country....hardly shocking, unfortunately.