Beheading in Saudi Arabia

SAUDI ARABIA: DEATH UPHELD FOR TRIO IN MAKKAH MURDERS

December 1, 2011: the Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences issued in Saudi Arabia by a lower court against three Pakistanis who were convicted of murdering and dismembering a compatriot and two Indonesian women, one of whom was pregnant, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.
It said the three Pakistanis were members of a money laundering ring.
The crime was committed in the central area around the Grand Mosque in Makkah during the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan a few years ago.
The gang members were found to have been transferring large sums of money to Pakistan through an Arab Gulf country. The gang was composed of four men, but the three of them got jealous of the fourth who acted as their leader. The defendants lured the man to their home, where they served him tea mixed with sleeping pills. When he fell unconscious, they killed him, chopped his body into pieces and put them in a garbage bag.
An Indonesian woman, who had an affair with the gang members, including the murder victim, came to the house to inquire about the victim, but was shocked to see his dismembered body. Fearing that the woman might report them to the police, the gang members killed her and put her body in a garbage bag, which they buried in the holy site of Arafat.
A few days later, a female friend of the murdered woman, also Indonesian, contacted the gang members on telephone to ask about her friend. When she persisted in her inquiries, they told her that the woman was staying with them and that she could come and visit her if she wanted. When the woman arrived, they killed her, too. The woman was pregnant. They put her body in a garbage bag, which they buried inside the house.
When the gang vacated the house, the landlord found the decomposed body of the Indonesian woman buried inside the house. He informed the police, who launched a manhunt and tracked down all the three members of the gang. They admitted to their crimes and authenticated their confessions at the Shariah court.
The judge sentenced them all to death in view of the brutality of the crimes, which they committed at the holiest of places during the holiest of months.
The gang members offered large sums of money to the families of the victims to forgive them, but the judge refused to release them saying that their crimes were tantamount to waging war on and spreading corruption in society. He said nobody had the right to forgive the trio and upheld the death sentences issued by the lower court. (Sources: Arab News, 01/12/2011)