The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a controversial and mysterious country with orders that sometimes frighten a European. A Muslim country where only one religion is recognized - Islam with the dominant trend of Wahhabism. Where believers pray five times a day and live according to religious Sharia law. Mecca of Muslim pilgrimage with hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims. The owner of 25% of the oil reserves on the planet and GDP per capita is not much less than even in the United States. And the country, along with China, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, is among the top five in terms of the number of cases of execution of the death penalty. In Saudi Arabia, this institution of punishment still exists today.
Public policy
The country is an absolute theocratic monarchy with a current cabinet of ministers. The Quran is the code of practice or, in Western terms, the constitution. Justice is based on a religious foundation and is represented by the Sharia court. The word "justice" is used rather conditionally, since there is no criminal code in the country, and the judge makes decisions based on Sharia law. There are two types of police in the country: ordinary and religious - the commission for the promotion of virtue or mutawa. It is she who is called upon to monitor the observance of the ethical norms of the Koran and the execution of all prohibitions.
Features of Saudi justice
According to Sharia law, there are three types of punishments:
Procedural Features
A confession and an oath are sufficient for an accusation in a Sharia court. There are no restrictions for mentally ill people and underage. There is no difference between citizens of the kingdom and foreigners. A lawyer is an unnecessary and unaffordable luxury, even when it comes to an execution in Saudi Arabia. Recently, there are no differences in punishment based on gender.
Saudi Arabia: lashings
It is this type of punishment that most often gets into the news columns of the Western media. This type of execution in Saudi Arabia is no more common than in all Muslim countries. Although let's not dissemble - here they beat much more often and harder. The record number of lashes - four thousand - was appointed in 1990. Egyptian Muhammad Ali al-Sayyid received such a sentence for robbery. The Shariah judge declared such a punishment to be mercy, because initially they wanted to cut off the hand of the convicted person.
The merciful Themis of Sharia divides the number of lashes and stretches the punishment for a long time. Few people can withstand a hundred lashes, so the victim is given a period of rehabilitation, and then the execution is resumed.
Such executions in Saudi Arabia are public, carried out with a crowd of citizens.
Decapitation and other horrors
A terrible public punishment for a Westerner is beheading followed by crucifixion for educational purposes. This is almost a ceremonial murder, which came from the darkness of the Middle Ages. Executions take place in the main square after lunchtime prayers. Cutting off the head is carried out by the executioner - there is such a position in the kingdom, it is inherited in the al-Bishi family. The presence of a doctor is required. Horror!
Prohibition of alcohol - how they are executed in Saudi Arabia
The use, manufacture and possession of alcohol is under the strictest prohibition of Shariah. Punishment is in the form of lashes. The case of Briton Carl Andy is indicative. A seventy-three-year-old man was found to have a bottle of homemade wine. Despite the fact that Carl suffered from asthma and cancer, he spent almost a year in prison waiting for 350 strokes. The pinnacle of diplomacy can be called the efforts of the embassy workers, who, under the threat of worsening relations, were able to take the sick Briton home.
But what is excusable for the allies of the Wahhabi state is completely inexcusable for everyone else and is subject to severe execution in Saudi Arabia. So, a resident of the Philippines, Faustino Salazaro, received four months in prison and 75 lashes just for buying a couple of packages of chocolate with liquor inside in Duty Free Bahrain.
Fornication and adultery
The prevention of these acts contrary to the Qur'an is an important component of Sharia justice. Moreover, the acts are interpreted ambiguously and very broadly. An illustration is the case that occurred in 2006 and was covered by the Western press as "the rape in Qatif." Seven men stole a couple from a car and abused both of them. The Shariah judge determined the punishment for the rapists in the form of several hundred lashes and long prison terms. But the victims, who were accused of debauchery, also got it, because these people were not spouses. They were also sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes. The Western world exploded in outraged protests. Under pressure from the world community, King Abdullah nevertheless canceled the judge's decision regarding the victim, although he called the judge's actions fair for such a Muslim country as Saudi Arabia. Executions of people for such crimes should be severe, he stressed in an interview with Western journalists.
For same-sex relationship, you can lose your head
Homosexuality is severely persecuted in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Executions for this crime can be the most cruel. And yet this phenomenon is quite common. The education system is based on gender segregation, minimizing contacts between men and women before marriage leads to the development of homosexual manifestations among young people.
In addition, there is, as it were, an unspoken agreement between the LGBT communities and the authorities of the country. Homosexuals openly respect the norms of Wahhabism, and the authorities do not notice the personal life of this category of subjects. Excesses often happen, but more often the sentences of judges are quite mild.
The most brutal executions in Saudi Arabia - for witchcraft
For vigilant neighbors and colleagues in the country, a hotline has been created to report citizens who practice magic or witchcraft. The verdict of the court is unequivocal - chopping off (decapitation) of the head and crucifixion of the body as an edification to all living people and an example of how apostates are executed in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the presence of the Koran in the toilet may be sufficient for prosecution, as happened in 2007 with Mustafa Ibrahim, a pharmacist from Egypt.
More often foreign guest workers suffer from fighters with magic. Two Asian maids in 2013 “got off lightly” with 1,000 lashes and ten years behind bars for magically damaging an employer, whose mere statement was enough to execute women.
In Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International, 154 people were executed in 2016. This figure is not much less than in 2015 (158). The cruel execution in Saudi Arabia, photos of examples of which filled the pages of the media, cannot leave the Western audience indifferent. Asking the question of how this can be in a prosperous state of the XXI century, the answer is found in the Koran - a book written in 600 years of our era. According to this ancient source, all sins are criminal offenses and provide just such severe punishments. And that this does not correlate with the norms of international law and modern ideas about humanism - as they say, "do not go, children, to walk in Africa." Of course, if you are not a Wahhabi Muslim.
How will your first day in Saudi Arabia start?
Friday, noon. The crowd surrounded the center of old Riyadh. The big al-Juma prayer has just ended in the main mosque of the city. A sharp sword, a little more than a meter long, with an Arabic-curved end, forged from steel shining in the sun, is now carried high above the head of a kneeling figure. From under the white clothes that hide the whole body, only the bare neck peeps out. Sixty or more men waited, standing around the perimeter of the wide square square, guarded by a confused row of eight soldiers dressed in bronze-coloured uniforms.
The executioner, who raised the sword, takes on menacing proportions and seems somehow mystical and ghostly, like a vision, in his long white dishdash shirt and red plaid keffiyeh bandage. He is ready to deliver a decisive blow, but suddenly steps back. Departs a couple of steps from the chopping block. Quietly conferring with two police officers and another person - the only person who can stop him: the victim of a criminal sentenced to death.
The short meeting is over. The executioner returns to the chopping block. He puts his right foot forward, left - wide back, as if doing a stretch. The raised sword gives a second solar reflection. A second moment - and ..!
But the executioner only smoothly lowers the sword on the neck of the condemned. Gives him the feel of hardened steel. The criminal's body tenses and freezes in anticipation. The sword swings high again, only this time it's for real. One precise and strong blow cuts through the skin, muscles and bones with a dull, hollow echo. A bloody waterfall erupts from the severed neck onto the granite square with a characteristic sound, as if wet laundry is being squeezed into a steel basin. The headless body leans forward, slightly collapses and falls on its right side.
The executioner wipes the sword with a piece of white cloth. The crowd parted as two men in blue overalls emerged from deep within the low arches surrounding the square, lifting the body and placing it on a stretcher. One of them picks up the head for a piece of matter in which it was wrapped. The elements of the crime are read out loudly: rape, drug trafficking and possession by the devil. The executioner sheathes his sword. A thick-bearded man in the form of a soldier clap his hands and raise them to the sky.
In five minutes, there will be no one left in the square except a janitor hosing down the bloody granite.
The death penalty is used in many countries. Public death penalty is popular in only four places on the planet. Well, the public death penalty using the full range of "technologies", such as: hanging, beheading, throwing stones, shooting, as well as beheading followed by crucifixion of the body on cranes - is used only in Saudi Arabia. In Iran, they execute 7 times more people a year, but even there they manage without chopping off their heads. When comparing Saudi and other countries, for some reason this important detail is often forgotten.
Someone writes that Saudi Arabia has recently stopped carrying out public executions, and the situation is improving. Nothing like this. The wide square square on which the head of the executed man flew is called the Chop-Chop Square by the locals.
Chop Chop Square is nothing of interest. It's just an empty place in the middle of old Riyadh, surrounded by low walls. One of the adjacent buildings houses the central city mosque. Not far from the square are the buildings of the court and various ministries. The perfect place for the death penalty.
The architectural complex of the square is completed by the ministry "For the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice", on the sandy facade of which hangs a poster with the slogan: "My prayer is my happiness."
On all days except Friday, the square is unremarkable and even boring. In the shade at the tables, the Arabs sit and drink tea, prayers are held in the mosque, and in general it is very good to relax under the palm trees in the heat.
On Friday, there is a special, long Friday prayer, which is very important for Muslims. Countless crowds of Riyadh residents flock to the nearest mosques from all directions. Around the central square, everything is cordoned off by the police. Sirens are constantly howling and dozens of red and blue lights shimmer. It seems that they are not here to protect against a terrorist attack, but as if a terrorist attack has already occurred.
Even close to Chop-Chop Square, there is no desire to be at this time, not to mention thinking of going inside. Any non-Muslim is stopped by armed soldiers and carefully examined. Then they pass.
The author came to look at the death penalty, keeping the camera in the bag in the off state - for trying to remove the chopping off of the head, I would not want to lose it myself. Armed soldiers on the approach to the square checked the bag, looked at each other, said something on the radio and let it through. Then I sat on a bench for half an hour and waited for what would happen.
A few minutes later, the Arabs left, having finished their tea. A police jeep drove up and dropped off the officer on duty a few meters away. Then the jeep drove off into the visibility zone at the other end of the square, and the soldier remained standing and pretending that he didn’t care about me. The author, on the other hand, was sitting on a bench under the palm trees, arms folded, keeping the camera turned off in the bag.
Nothing else happened in the square. No death penalty. But as soon as I got up and went to the exit, the soldier immediately stopped me. He asked me to open my bag. I took the camera and turned it on. He asked me to look through the photos, which were the streets of Riyadh. Then he snatched the camera out of his hands and began to scroll in the opposite direction, reporting on the radio what he sees in each photo. Several minutes passed like this, until he was convinced that I had not filmed the square.
I didn't see the death penalty. They really stopped being held on Chop-Chop Square, but only on this square! In order not to gather crowds of onlookers, the Saudi authorities are now carrying out decapitation not at the central mosque, but at the place where the crime was committed.
It's unbelievable how crazy the laws are here. First, the killer is arrested and put in jail. Conduct court. Only one thing can save him from the death penalty - a ransom. Often the relatives of the killer and the relatives of the victim agree among themselves on a ransom. As a result, murderers are not always executed, and heads are flying from drug dealers, homosexuals and political dissidents, who either no one cares about or it is more expensive for oneself to get involved.
The most important thing: after the trial, if it is possible to establish the scene of the crime, the victim is taken to this place, wherever it is, and their head is cut off right there. Even if it's right in the middle of the street. For example, like this woman who killed and raped a child, screaming to the end that she was not guilty.
Well, nothing else happens on Chop-Chop Square. Not far from the former block, the city museum was opened in the former fort. Workers and businessmen often come here on weekends, school excursions are held. Almost none of these "tourists" even knows that after a hundred meters they cut off their heads.
Old Riyadh
The Masmak fortress is a beautifully executed remake, a reconstruction of an old fort.
The fortress has a restored 19th-century Arab interior - boring and meaningless, like all of Arabia.
Model of the old city.
On the wall are quotes from King Abdulaziz: "I conquered this country thanks to the will of Allah and the Arab spirit."
In the courtyard stands a working copy of the will of Allah.
Interesting characters. With some kind of cunning, they sniffed out something.
Streets behind the fortress.
There is also a market near the fort, a typical bazaar, like in any third world country. The market sells carpets, clothes and gold.
As soon as I took this harmless picture, a policeman noticed me. He called me to his car, asked for a passport. Long considered a business visa. Realizing that there was no use in me, he made a sad, downright upset face and said in the voice of a kindergarten teacher:
Andrew... Are you... taking pictures?
- Yes, I'm only Fort Masmak!
- Ah, well, go, inshallah.
⁂
A few kilometers from Riyadh there is another historical site - the ruins of the old city of Ad-Dir.
Restored ruins, of course.
You can write about them for exactly one reason - it is surprisingly empty and clumsy here, as if it had fallen into a plastic model.
But I must say, the Arabs restore conscientiously. The doors seem to have been carved by the same craftsman as 200 years ago.
However, it is not necessary to go to artificial ruins. In secret, there are enough real ruins in the center. I walked around the city for a long time, went around all the non-tourist places. Hidden behind pathetic skyscrapers and a wealthy private sector, Riyadh is essentially dirty, filthy streets lined with shabby low-rise buildings.
This is what is happening a hundred meters from Chop-Chop Square.
This is what the real Riyadh looks like. Just like those museum ruins, only for real. The old houses, built of sand and corals, seemed to have been washed away by water - only heaps of clay remained, no frame.
Such streets occupy more than half of the city. Riyadh is full of Pakistani neighborhoods that look even worse.
I went around the whole city; I decided to get the camera only in a couple of places. After all the Saudi paranoia and two arrests, who knows if I would have been mistaken for a spy or just a careless fool.
Execution process
The execution process itself in Saudi Arabia is a whole ceremony, the traditions of which have been kept and replenished for many hundreds of years.
All executions are carried out after midday prayers in the central square. Condemned to death is delivered to the place blindfolded. Law enforcement forces clear the square of cars and passers-by, after which they spread a piece of blue cloth or plastic on the ground.
In some cases, the execution can be replaced by a pardon by agreement of the parties and the payment of so-called "blood money" - compensation for the crime committed.
So, for example, the TV Islamic preacher Fayhan al-Ghamdi, who was accused of raping and beating to death his five-year-old daughter, having paid hard-earned money, escaped execution and was first released from custody a few months later, but later, after resonance and indignation in society and the blogosphere, yet received a sentence of 8 years and 600 lashes, and the authorities announced that they plan to set up a 24-hour child abuse hotline.
On January 2, Saudi Arabia executed 47 people at a time on charges of promoting extremist ideology, terrorist activities and participating in conspiracies, including the Shiite preacher Nimr al-Nimr. This caused a wave of indignation around the world and, above all, in Shiite Iran, where protesters broke into the building of the Saudi embassy and tried to set a fire there. As a result, this led to a break in diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran.
Almost simultaneously, the blood of those executed was shed on the territory controlled by the Islamic State banned in Russia (IS, ISIS, the Arabic version of the name is DAISH). His militants published a video in which they killed five British citizens accused of espionage.
These two incidents are an occasion to rethink the fundamental relationship between the two Sharia entities, Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State, one of which enjoys public patronage from the collective West.
Scenes from the Middle Ages
A typical execution scene in Saudi Arabia looks like this. Before us are many people in white clothes and red turbans-gutras. The executioner raises a sharpened saber and with a light movement cuts off the condemned head. The head falls to the asphalt, the executioner steps back a few steps so that he is not splashed with gushing blood. After that, we see cars passing by. According to Sharia law, the execution must be public, it must be observed by devout Muslims so that crimes do not repeat themselves in the future. But in our time, there are few people who want to watch the execution, so the executioners simply block the busy intersection. Drivers of stopped cars are forced to watch the execution. At the end of the execution, the fire engine quickly washes the intersection and traffic is reopened. This is Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Sharia law has been in force in this land for hundreds of years.
Let us give the impressions of such a spectacle by a Time newspaper photographer: “When the execution began, the rebels grabbed him by the throat. He began to resist. Three or four rebels pinned him to the ground. The man tried to protect his throat with his hands, which were still bound. He fought, but the rebels were stronger and they slit his throat. They lifted his severed head into the air. People around began to brandish their weapons and cheer. Everyone was happy that the execution took place. This scene was like from the Middle Ages, you usually read about this in history books. The war in Syria has reached the point where a person can be mercilessly killed in front of hundreds of people who enjoy the spectacle.” This is the city of Kefergan, the territory controlled by the Islamic State.
Here is another punishment. Here, apparently, chopping off the head is not enough. Sri Lankans convicted of murder were first beheaded and then crucified on crosses. Their corpses will be put up for public desecration - so that others would be disrespectful. Are the ISIS radicals again? No, this is the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
How to eat a woman
In the Saudi kingdom, school textbooks were even printed to educate teenagers about the norms of Sharia law. For example, they say that Jews and homosexuals must be put to death. Basically an old idea. The textbook also illustrates in detail how to cut off the legs and arms of criminals in case it is urgently needed.
And it was necessary! A 50-year-old Indian woman who worked as a servant in Saudi Arabia complained of ill-treatment and delayed wages. After the maid tried to escape, her employer tied her to the balcony of her own sari and cut off her right hand. The woman was taken to a Riyadh hospital by neighbors. Representatives of the Indian Foreign Ministry called the incident "a terrible and reprehensible incident." Despite this, the Saudi has not yet been punished.
A woman in Saudi Arabia is generally a creature without rights. For example, in 2014, the country's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ali, allowed cannibalism. Aziz Ali stated literally the following: “If a man is mortally hungry and does not find food at home, he can cut off a fragment of his wife’s body and eat it. A woman should treat this decision with devotion and humility, as she is one with her husband.
The Islamic State militants also decided to implement the advice of Saudi textbooks. In the Iraqi city of Mosul they captured, a man accused of homosexuality was thrown from the roof of a house. Dozens of people came to see the execution, including children. The fact that the man was sentenced to death was announced into the microphone by one of the terrorists. People crowded around his crushed body, although the sight was not for the faint of heart.
Tooth for tooth, eye for eye
However, even more brutal methods of killing are practiced in ISIS. Recently, a video of the execution of a 19-year-old Syrian army soldier appeared on the Web. The fighter was a tanker. In the video, he walks towards the terrorists' tank, falls under its tracks. A car runs over a young soldier, leaving him with only shattered bones and a flattened brain.
And here is another application of the ancient principle of talion (when punishment reproduces the harm done): a captive Jordanian pilot stands in an iron cage. He is wearing bright orange clothes doused with a combustible mixture. A militant in light camouflage sets fire to a path of gasoline with a torch, the fire covers the entire cage and the executed.
But in the kingdom of the Saudis there are punishments "softer". Blogger Raif Badawi was accused of insulting Islam. Badawi discussed religious issues in his blog and criticized the current government. For this, the Sharia state sentenced him to a thousand lashes, a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals and ten years in prison. Probably out of "philanthropy" lashes will be applied gradually: fifty lashes every week.
The death penalty in Saudi Arabia also extends to foreigners: on May 6, 2015, five people from East Africa were executed there. They were accused of killing an Indian guard and stealing his money. Africans were beheaded, after which their corpses were hung from a helicopter. According to the authorities, this should deter others from committing similar crimes.
crushed hopes
According to Western human rights activists, since January 1985, more than 2.2 thousand people have been executed in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, about half of them are foreigners.
Until the 90s of the last century, women in the kingdom were shot. However, then the authorities decided that ... representatives of the weaker sex should also be cut off their heads. To determine the religious affiliation, a Saudi visa contains a column on the religion of a foreigner. The religious police (muttawa) operate in the country. Soldiers of the Sharia Guard constantly patrol the streets and public institutions of Saudi cities in order to suppress attempts to violate the canons of Islam. If a violation is found, the perpetrator is punished - from a fine to beheading.
An Amnesty International report on the death penalty noted that "there were some hopes for human rights reforms when King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud took the throne in early 2014, but they are now completely crushed."
The death penalty is protected in Saudi Arabia at the state level. The president of the Saudi Commission on Human Rights, Bandar Al-Aiban, said that the kingdom cannot neglect the rights of the victims of criminals. And a little earlier, the spokesman for the country's interior ministry, General Mansour Al-Turki, explained the difference between the death sentence carried out in the "Islamic State" and Saudi practice. "IS has no legal mechanism in deciding whether to execute people," At-Turki said.
Could Faisal Trat, the permanent representative of Saudi Arabia to the UN, have been recently appointed chairman of the advisory group in the UN Human Rights Council for the existence of a “legal mechanism”?
Who is bad and who is good
Double standards have always been a part of world politics - suffice it to recall examples of different interpretations of the right of peoples to self-determination and the principle of territorial integrity. Kosovo Albanians can secede, but Russians in Crimea cannot. The Jews are entitled to their own nation state, but the Kurds are not. Slobodan Milosevic is bad, so we are bombing Yugoslavia, and Al Saud is selling oil, we shake his hand. With whom I am friends, I forgive him, with whom I am not friends, I bring democracy to him ...
It is necessary, however, to know the measure. It is time for our Western partners to understand that there is no fundamental difference between the Saudi regime and the terrorist IS, and not only in the area of justice. Without waiting for cases of decapitation by Islamist fanatics to become a steady practice not only in the Middle East, but also in the center of Western capitals - with grateful spectators, jurists-interpreters and executioners on the payroll.
Anatoly Glazunov (Blockade) from the book "Freaks are sexy in Russia".
Execution, noose cutting off the eggs (continued)
Pedophiles beheaded in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia banner
Coat of arms of Saudi Arabia
King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah
The country's Constitution and the Criminal Code are based on Sharia norms and dogmas of Wahhabism. The crimes carrying the death penalty in Saudi Arabia include: premeditated murder,homosexuality,armed robbery,adultery,rape,religious apostasy, smuggling, trafficking, possession and use of drugs and the organization of groups in opposition to the authorities. There are no political parties in Saudi Arabia. Thus, sexual crimes are classified as very serious crimes. Previously, criminals were stoned to death, now more often they are cut off with a sword. In the mild case, pederasts are sentenced to severe flogging (up to 7,000 lashes).
In Saudi Arabia, there is a position of state executioner. The position of chief executioner of Mecca is hereditary in the al-Bishy family, and each heir is approved for the position by the king himself. Currently, the chief executioner is Abdullah ibn Said al-Bishi. Executions in Mecca are carried out in the square in front of the gates of Abdulaziz, before that they were held in front of the Al-Haram mosque.
In 2002, 47 people were executed (45 men, 2 women), in 2003 - 53 (52 men, 1 woman), in 2004 - 36 (35 men, 1 woman), in 2005 - 90 (88 men, 2 women), in 2006 - 39 people (35 men, 4 women). ...
EXECUTION PROCESS
“The execution process itself in Saudi Arabia is a whole ceremony, the traditions of which have been kept and replenished for hundreds of years.
All executions are carried out after midday prayers in the central square. Condemned to death is delivered to the place blindfolded. Law enforcement forces clear the square of cars and passers-by, after which they spread a piece of blue cloth or plastic on the ground.
The officer of the muttawa (muttawa is the police of morality) leads the convict to the center of this matter, the convict kneels facing Mecca. If the execution takes place in Mecca - facing the Kaaba. The policemen read out the verdict and give the order to carry it out.
The executioner receives the sword from the hands of a police officer, approaches the convict from the back, and before cutting off the head, makes several swings of the sword in the air. To stop the flowing bleeding as soon as possible, a physician is always present at the execution. The headless body is buried without a coffin and tombstone on the same day.
Until the early 90s, only men were executed in Saudi Arabia, but by the beginning of 2007, 40 women had been executed.
There are entire dynasties of executioners in the country who, like the al-Bishi family, pass their business from generation to generation. The death penalty also affected the culture of the Arabs. So, for example, the popular folk “Dance of War” al-Arda is largely derived from the movements of the executioner.Funeral portal. Middle East and Asia. http://www.funeralportal.ru/article.php?ObjectId=915 ...
Of course, the pernicious influence from the USA and Western Europe still takes place. The Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia stated on 12 November 2003 that over 6,700 people living with HIV were registered in the Kingdom. Among them, only 1509 are citizens of the country. That is, the carriers of the virus are mostly foreigners leading a Sadomitic lifestyle. The first case of HIV was reported in Saudi Arabia in 1984. Today, the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia already has 6787 HIV-positive people.
In his statement, the head of the country's epidemiological control noted that in 95% of cases, HIV infection "becomes the result of prohibited sexual relations." By "forbidden relationships" the representative of the organization means "sexual contacts outside of marriage, homosexuality and pedophilia."
http://www.aids.ru/news/2003/11/12-2202.htm
Credit: Reuters Jamaica lifts moratorium on executions
Opponents of the resumption of the death penalty point to the failureAccording to opinion polls, a majority of Jamaica's 2.7 million people support the return of the death penalty.
35 deputies spoke out in support of the death penalty. 15 voted against, 10 abstained. Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, under pressure from the public due to rising crime, also supported the introduction of the death penalty.
Since 1988, Jamaica has had a moratorium on the death penalty, but the Labor Party, which came to power a year ago, insisted on the resumption of capital punishment.
According to sociological surveys, most of the 2.7 million inhabitants
Jamaica supports the return of the death penalty.
