Feb. 29
SAUDI ARABIA:
Convict pardoned moments before beheading----Victim’s father shouted pardon
inside execution square in Saudi Arabia
A Saudi man sentenced to death for murder was escorted to a big square where
hundreds of people gathered to watch him beheaded. Just as the executioner was
about to bring his sword down on the neck of the blindfolded man, the beheading
was abruptly halted amidst religious chanting by the crowd.
The event was not part of a film. It took place at the execution square in the
southern Saudi town of Abha on Tuesday morning.
The swordsman, standing above the kneeling tied defendant, just froze upon
hearing a man from the crowd shouting the pardon. He was the victim’s father.
“The halting of the execution caused a big stir among the crowd, who began
chanting ‘God is Great’,” Sabq Arabic language daily said.
The pardon by the victim’s father, Sheikh Saad bin Ayed Al Kadam, came as a big
surprise to both the crowd and the officials enforcing the court sentence.
“For nearly 6 years, Sheikh Kadam has rejected all mediation efforts exerted by
relatives, dignitaries and many Saudi princes to pardon the killer…he had
insisted on the death of his son’s killer….just after the court sentence and
Koran verses were read inside the execution square and the swordsman was ready
to behead the killer, Sheikh Kadam shouted the pardon.”
“Sheikh Kadam did not only pardon the killer, but asked court to release him
from jail immediately…he later said that he decided to pardon the killer in
response to King Abdullah’s wish which was conveyed to him by Prince Faisal bin
Khaled of (the southern province of) Asir.”
(source: Emirates247)
INDIA:
SC saves man who murdered wife, 3 kids from the gallows
Holding that the gruesome murders were committed on the spur of the moment due
to suspicion of his spouse's infidelity, the Supreme Court has commuted to life
term the death penalty of a man who murdered his wife and their 3 kids in
Madhya Pradesh's Dewas district.
A bench of justices, while altering the sentence to 21 years, felt the murders
by Brajendra Singh of his wife Aradhana and their three children did not fall
under the "rarest of rare category" warranting capital punishment.
"He has lost his children, whom he had brought up for years, and also his wife.
Besides that, it was not a planned crime and also lacked motive. It was a crime
which had been committed out of suspicion and frustration.
"The circumstances, examined cumulatively, would to some extent suggest the
existence of a mental imbalance in the accused at the moment of committing the
crime.
(source: The Times of India)
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