A Woman Was Publicly Beheaded In The Holy City Of Mecca
She was executed by sword after being dragged through the street and held down by four police officers.
By Sadho Ram — 17 Jan 2015, 08:24 AM — Updated almost 10 years ago
A Burmese woman was publicly beheaded by Saudi authorities on the streets of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam. As per reports, the woman was executed by sword on Monday, 12 January after being dragged through the street and held down by four police officers.
The woman, identified as Laila Bint Abdul Muttalib Basim, resided in Saudi Arabia. Laila was convicted of sexually abusing and murdering her 7-year-old step-daughter, reports The Independent.
Laila Bint Abdul Muttalib Basim, a Burmese woman who resided in Saudi Arabia, was executed by sword on Monday after being dragged through the street and held down by four police officers. She was convicted of the sexual abuse and murder of her seven-year-old step-daughter.
Gruesome footage of the execution, which was briefly available on YouTube before being taken down, showed Laila being dragged, screaming "I did not kill" repeatedly. As per The Telegraph, she is eventually allowed to collapse into a prone position on the street, upon which the executioner brings down his sword on her neck.
It took 3 blows by the executioner to fully sever her head
In the chilling recording, Bashim, who was found guilty in a Saudi Sharia court of sexually abusing and murdering her seven-year-old step-daughter, is heard protesting her innocence until the very end. "I did not kill. I did not kill," she screams repeatedly.
Filming of executions is normally strictly prohibited by Saudi authorities raising speculation that a security official may have covertly videoed the killing.
As per a report by VICE News:
The Saudi Ministry of Interior said that the brutally delivered death penalty was warranted due to the "enormity of the crime," and was carried out to "restore security" and "realize justice."
"[The punishment] implements the rulings of God against all those who attack innocents and spill their blood. The government warns all those who are seduced into committing a similar crimes that the rightful punishment is their fate."
A Saudi human rights activist, noted that the Burmese woman was not injected with painkillers before the execution, explaining that the authorities wanted to inflict maximum suffering on Laila
"Authorities have two methods of beheading people. One way is to inject the prisoner with painkillers to numb the pain and the other is without the painkiller. This woman was beheaded without painkillers – they wanted to make the pain more powerful for her," said Mohammed al-Saeedi, an activist from the Eastern Province, as quoted by the MEE.
Sputnik, citing the Middle East Eye, reported that some online users expressed their doubts regarding Laila's guilt since she had continued to profess her innocence until she was put to death
"A guilty offender, at the moment of execution, is plagued by their conscience, and the best conclusion to an execution is if the sentenced person confesses to the crime. This woman's insistence that she is innocent and never committed the murder is more than a small sign that we should question how she confessed and the documents according to which she was sentenced," an unnamed blogger wrote, as cited by the MEE.
Laila was the ninth person to be beheaded in the last two weeks; setting 2015 up to be even more bloody than last year, when 87 people were beheaded by the authorities in 2014 and 78 in 2013
43% of those executed in #SaudiArabia in 2014 were foreign nationals, including 2 women
— Adam Coogle (@cooglea) January 3, 2015
Laila's execution comes as the Saudi authorities are already under the spotlight for the public flogging of Raif Badawi, a blogger who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a total of 1,000 lashings for a range of offenses, including insulting religious authorities
Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger, was due to receive the second set of 50 lashes today for insulting Islam, but it has been postponed on medical grounds.
Ali A Rizvi, one of the blogger's best friends told The Independent: "His wife told me that the lashings have been postponed, but it is only temporary."
He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison after creating a liberal, secular website, Free Saudi Liberals. He faces lashings every Friday for the next 18 weeks, until the sentence is completed.
While several western authorities have spoken out against Badawi's case, in general governments have been slow to condemn oil-rich Saudi Arabia. "The US and European governments have always been reluctant to take publicly critical positions on Saudi Arabia," Coogle said. "This is a matter of a whole bunch of economic and regional security and stability issues, but human rights typically ends up a low priority in these circumstances."