Saudis prepare to behead teenage maid

Source: daily telegraph

The imminent execution of a teenage maid in Saudi Arabia drew fierce criticism yesterday and provoked condemnation of the kingdom's prolific use of capital punishment.

The case has brought fresh attention to the draconian Saudi criminal justice system which is expected this year to set a new record in its use of the death sentence.

Human rights campaigners yesterday urged the authorities not to behead a 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid found guilty of killing a baby in her care.

.................................................................

But Nafeek, whose job was not meant to include child care, has denied making any such admission. She claims the child had begun to choke before losing consciousness in spite of her desperate efforts to clear his airway.


Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/16/wsaudi116.xml

BushAmerica has left.

Why Prince Bandar Bush is practically family.

Came across these items the other day which you may be assured will get no major daylight in the whorporate media, nor will the item which prompted this thread.
The Los Angeles Times reports today that according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers, about 45% of all foreign militants "targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia." Only 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa. This is based on official U.S. military figures made available to newspaper by the senior officer.
And,Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.
Maybe if the chimperor would go beyond handholding we'd get some real assistance from the saudis.

human rights. KSA is a noted human rights abuser.

that makes America's look 'moderate.'

This serial nitwit would have the mother of all orgasms.

says some defendants are convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under duress, torture or deception.

Speaking of the housemaid's sentence, Kate Allen of Amnesty International called it "an absolute scandal that Saudi Arabia is preparing to behead a teenage girl who didn't even have a lawyer at her trial."

"The Saudi authorities are flouting an international prohibition on the execution of child offenders by even imposing a death sentence on a defendant who was reportedly 17 at the time of the alleged crime," she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289317,00.html

If it was true one had to pity these poor girls being used by that country both men and women. I never saw a third world country person treated well at all. Course I look at things from an Am. point and it is hard to see women treated so bad. I would say that the people who call them self tribal Bedouin seem to be a different breed than the people who call them self Saudi. Bedouin seem to treated most people in a better way then the Saudi.

Some very entrenched racist attitudes among the Wahhabis are responsible for a huge amount of slavery conditions endured by impoverished foreign workers.

The religious police are the worst for intilling fear and hatred among the indigenous population. Their treatment of non-Saudis is hideous.

The religious police have harassed my wife and I a time or two while jogging - my wife would wear sweatpants and a long-sleeve shirt - they would stop us and tell us that women could not jog . . . we finally started to argue back - since she was dressed modestly they would finally leave us alone . . .

I attended 3 beheadings while there . . .

Where were you during your stays there?

I liked living out on the society as the every day people were so nice. Once you got into the city things did not seem the same. The part I stayed in was not part that many Western people had been in to for long and we got along very well with the people. There was also a bad way in how Southern Am. were treating the people and locals picked it up very fast. We went to the locals homes and every one kept asking us how come as we were the only ones who were asked but I think it was the local people knew we did not look down on them. We were not calling them 'sand nigers'(sorry to say that) behind their back and we liked them. I was shocked that most Am. and English treated these people so bad when it was their country. Can. people also were very well liked by the locals. It must have been some thing in our make up. We also got along with the Indians who lived in the same building so I sent many hours with these men.

I could swear there was a BBC story (ies) about the Philippines embassies in the various Mideast countries getting reports of slave-like conditions for their nationals. If you want, I could probably find the articles/links.

It was a very un-happy story about these girls. You also live sort of under guard as a women. You can not go any place alone. I would get to know some of the locals by just walking out side the camp I lived in. I put on their clothing and being middle age I was sort of looked at as safe I guess. People were usually very nice to me. A man with 50 goats would step out of a tent and ask in bad English for me to have coffee with him and I always did. I played with their children and I guess all seemed safe and Am. looked like they were. My swimming days were the best. I would have 10 men from Yemen swimming with me. They kept saying a swimming grandmother was fun. I put on a old pair of slacks and tee shirt so I think they felt I was well covered. You could see they were shocked at the little women wore at the beach and I had not brought a suit with me so I figured this was the way to go.

and remember how many Saudis were on those 911 jets too.

as slaves.

It is atrocious that they are our "ally"...

No. What is your suggestion(s) for solving their human rights abuses?

to be honest until their corrupt monarchy is overthrown and the religous nitwits who have made that country a mess.

- there are thousands of princes and princesses in SA some estimates are as many as 6-7000 of them living off the oil teat
- unemployment rates among average saudis is high and they really hate the fact that foreign workers are doing the work they feel should be going to them....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5406328.stm

This article sums it up...

Now who is to blame for this...their corrupt government and their conservative religious leaders..

so throw in a bit of marxism and socialism...along with a religious reformation of the liberal sort...I think you might find a fix for Saudi Arabia.

But who should do this...I think that the Saudis themselves should do it...because revolution from within is always a better route.

I think that the West should stay out and let the Saudi people "fix" their monarchy...just like the Russian folks fixed their monarchy...

much influence. The other thing I would say is that KSA never did have any "industry" other than oil. That's their entire economy other than religious pilgrimages.

meanwhile their own people are without jobs...now I can't imagine the amount of goverment welfare they dole out but eventually the underprivileged folks are going to revolt...and that is when the princes and princesses will all start to flee to their homes in St. Moritz and elsewhere.

With oil the only industry and from what i hear they aren't cultivating anything else...what happens when it all goes kaputt?

survive on the interest. But you're right, if the citizens want to work, let them work. I think the problem is matching skills to jobs, though.

<http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070713/OPINION01/707130350/1036/OPINION01>

Unless a desperate 11th-hour campaign by human-rights advocates can schedule a court appeal by Monday, a teenage Sri Lankan girl will be beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

It's punishment for a crime she never got to defend herself against, and one she denies committing: the murder of a baby in her care. If ever a case begged for a mass global response, this is it.

The story of Rizana Nafeek (alternately spelled Naffeek and Nazik) has multiple tragic dimensions. Rizana was just 17 in May 2005 when she was sent from her home in Sri Lanka to Saudi Arabia as a household worker. Her impoverished family had lost everything in the tsunami of 2004. She had no experience in infant care when she was put in charge of the baby, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, which has been publicizing her case. Her employers didn't speak her language, making it questionable how much training she got.

"ugly American"!

and proud of it.

so am I.

:pals:

Seriously.

while i agree that everyone deserves an attorney and a strong defense, i can't imagine what defense she could have mounted under the circumstances described in this report

i was a baby sitter many years younger than 17, as were many of my friends, and yet somehow none of us ever suffocated a baby to death when bottle-feeding, nor did we "stroke" its neck so enthusiastically that it could have been mistaken for strangulation, i just don't see any way this happens other than the young woman murdered the baby

not being able to speak arabic well is not really much of a defense, it's just not nice to strangle babies and pretend it's some kind of (but what kind?) of misnderstanding

we do execute killers in the usa and baby killers are not a beloved part of our culture who merit any sympathy and honestly it's hard for me to see how this case could generate much outrage

there are certainly some bad executions in saudi arabia, but i'll be honest, i'm more concerned when i hear of people being executed for being gay or for being raped than when i hear of them being executed for murder

Because if you did, you wouldn't spread those allegations, which haven't been proved.
One thing should be clear: In cruel, unjust and bloodthirsty regimes like Saudi Arabia,
there simply is no justice system. It's a sham.

From the article we're discussing here:

Nafeek, whose job was not meant to include child care, has denied making any such
admission. She claims the child had begun to choke before losing consciousness in
spite of her desperate efforts to clear his airway (...)

Amnesty International says some defendants are convicted solely on the basis of
confessions obtained under duress, torture or deception."

it certainly wasn't v. convincing that this young woman was worth my time, it seems a certainty that she did kill this baby and now she is making really weird excuses

there doesn't seem to be any debate that she killed the baby, the debate seems to be whether it was an accident or intentional, my experience of bottle feeding babies and at a much younger age than she was is that there's no way she just accidentally killed the baby like this

i do think she should have had an attorney, she certainly isn't serving herself v. well w. her "explanation" of what occurred

Does that fact that it's practiced in my country diminish my right to criticize another country for having the death penalty?

I don't believe it does.

...and people have the right to find closure in having the person who murdered their family member put to death.

i am not saying that the situation in saudi arabia is correct, but a person convicted of murder in a legit trial might unfortunately meet the same fate that their victim did. perhaps much less pain, but it's justice.

n/t

OK with the electric chair and lethal injection. Go figure.

Like you, I'm totally opposed to the DP.

"According to the Saudi authorities, Rizana Nafeek admitted strangling the four-month-old boy while feeding him with a bottle.

<Oh, and I'm sure no coercion was applied to this 17 year old CHILD by the Saudi "authorities"!!! :sarcasm:>

"But Nafeek, whose job was not meant to include child care, has denied making any such admission. She claims the child had begun to choke before losing consciousness in spite of her desperate efforts to clear his airway."

<clip>

"Amnesty International says some defendants are convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under duress, torture or deception."

I'd believe AI before I'd believe those Saudi fucks!!!!


Your sympathy for a repressive, racist, brutal, insane regime is baffling...

two wrongs don't make a right, and this young woman chose to express her frustrations by choking another woman's baby, there ain't any good guys in this nasty little tale

You're taking the word of torturers that she did what they say she "said she did" after being the recipient of their "tender mercies" in their dismal dungeon?

Can't you give the benefit of the doubt to the child babysitting the child rather than the Saudi "authorities"????

------------

Infants occasionally choke and die without any help.

If I hadn't known what to do a few decades ago, my daughter might have also choked to death one night.

This young girl obviously didn't have the benefit of the knowledge I had.

Your anger at this victim of Saudi "justice" is puzzling...

And you think justice has been served?!?!?

Wow. How very progressive of you.

:eyes:

to that of a young girl in Saudi Arabia

It's hard for the pot to call the kettle black, especially when the kettle's leaders are old friends of the family...

The U.S. has NO moral standing in the world on the subject of the death penalty..

Death Penalty Permitted

* Afghanistan
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Bahamas
* Bahrain
* Bangladesh
* Barbados
* Belarus
* Belize
* Botswana
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Chad
* China (People's Republic)
* Comoros
* Congo (Democratic Republic)
* Cuba
* Dominica
* Egypt
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Ethiopia
* Gabon
* Ghana
* Guatemala
* Guinea
* Guyana
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Jamaica
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Korea, North
* Korea, South
* Kuwait
* Kyrgyzstan
* Laos
* Lebanon
* Lesotho
* Libya
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Mongolia
* Nigeria
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Palestinian Authority
* Qatar
* Rwanda
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and the Grenadines
* Saudi Arabia
* Sierra Leone
* Singapore
* Somalia
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Syria
* Taiwan
* Tajikistan
* Tanzania
* Thailand
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Uganda
* United Arab Emirates
* United States
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Yemen
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4409857.stm

----------------
U.S. comes in fourth in number of executions, barely ahead of....Saudi Arabia

China
Iran
Vietnam
U.S.A.
Saudi Arabia

The only alleged "democracy" at the top of the list...

<Amnesty International> welcomed the fall in death sentences, but said the US should go further and ban the death penalty.

"We believe it's wrong. The cardinal basic human rights laws say there is a right to life and a right not to be punished in a cruel way."

Saudi Arabia is a flourishing democracy and an example for the Middle East.

Sincerely,

GW Bush
Commander AWOL)

:(

Sometimes I get them confused...

They hate human rights and women.

"Nafeek, who had been denied a lawyer at her trial, is one of 5.6 million foreign workers who live in Saudi Arabia. The vast majority are domestic workers such as Nafeek, employed to look after the homes of oil-rich families."

.

:D

I don't think you can go into a bar, though.

Life without Parole in California...

Sick, sick, sick....

Who the FUCK are we to talk?

Oh, that's right, the U.S. govt. ain't said shit about this. So I guess it's ok...

so what? capital punishment is horrible, no matter the technique. funny how only some nations' choice of execution merit attention by the corporate media.

at her "trial" in KSA's kangaroo court.

Which court system would you rather trust your life to? Ours or theirs?

"Nafeek, who had been denied a lawyer at her trial, is one of 5.6 million foreign workers who live in Saudi Arabia. The vast majority are domestic workers such as Nafeek, employed to look after the homes of oil-rich families".