Vacancy!!! Saudi Arabia Advertises For Executioners For Public Beheadings

As funny as this sounds, it is a not a joke. Saudi Arabia is advertising for eight new executioners  to carry out an increasing number of death sentences usually done by public beheading. in the Islamic kingdom which is said to be in the top five countries in the world for putting people to death.

The main role is ‘executing a judgement of death’ - but workers must also perform amputations on those convicted of lesser offences, according to the advert posted on the civil service jobs portal.

Hmm, this world is a strange place,,

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Saudi woman files suit over right to drive

A leader of a high-profile campaign pushing for women to drive in Saudi Arabia says she's suing traffic police in order to get a driver's license.

Manal al Sharif told CNN Sunday that she filed an objection with the General Directorate of Traffic in Riyadh, the country's capital, when officials rejected her license application.

After waiting 90 days and receiving no response, she filed her suit against them in November.

"It's just creating positive pressure on the officials to get back to us -- and it will encourage more women to apply for licenses and file lawsuits," she said.

There are no specific traffic laws that make it illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia. However, religious edicts are often interpreted as a prohibition of female drivers. Such edicts also prevent women from opening bank accounts, obtaining passports or even going to school without the presence of a male guardian.

Al Sharif said her case had been transferred to Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry. Officials there could not be reached for comment.

Al Sharif said she first applied for a license after being stopped by the authorities for driving a car last May.

She was detained, spent nine days in jail and quickly became an icon of the "Women2Drive" campaign, an initiative demanding the right for women to drive and travel freely in Saudi Arabia.

A Facebook page organizing a campaign for women to drive last June included a banner that read, "We are all Manal Sharif," and a quote from King Abdullah stating that "the day will come when women will be able to drive."

The single mother and information technology specialist's name first became a rallying cry for Saudi women last year after she uploaded a YouTube video of herself driving.

Through the lawsuit, al Sharif said she is continuing her fight.

"There is no law forbidding women from driving," she said.

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Saudi woman beheaded for 'witchcraft and sorcery

A woman was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for practicing witchcraft and sorcery, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said, prompting Amnesty International to call for a halt in executions there.

Amina bint Abdel Halim Nassar was executed Monday for having "committed the practice of witchcraft and sorcery," according to an Interior Ministry statement. Nassar was investigated before her arrest and was "convicted of what she was accused of based on the law," the statement said. Her beheading took place in the Qariyat province of the region of Al-Jawf, the ministry said.

In a statement issued late Monday, the human rights group called the execution "deeply shocking" and said it "highlights the urgent need for a halt in executions in Saudi Arabia."

"While we don't know the details of the acts which the authorities accused Amina of committing, the charge of sorcery has often been used in Saudi Arabia to punish people, generally after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's interim director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, practices a puritanical version of Islam and is governed by Shariah, or Islamic law. In the deeply conservative kingdom, sorcery, witchcraft and blasphemy are all offenses that can be punishable by death.

The London-based Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat quoted a source in the country's religious police who said authorities searched Nassar's home and found books on sorcery, a number of talismans and glass bottles filled with liquids supposedly used for the purposes of magic. The source told the paper Nassar was selling spells and bottles of the liquid potions for about $400 dollars each.

Amnesty says Nassar's execution is "the second of its kind in recent months. In September, a Sudanese national was beheaded in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina after being convicted on 'sorcery' charges."

The human rights group said the number of executions in Saudi Arabia has almost tripled in 2011.

"So far at least 79 people -- including five women -- have been executed there, compared to at least 27 in 2010," the Amnesty statement said.

This is not the first sorcery case in Saudi Arabia to spark outrage from human rights groups. In 2008, Lebanese TV host Ali Hussain Sibat was arrested on charges of sorcery while in Saudi Arabia on a religious pilgrimage. In 2009, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. While Sibat has not been executed, he remains in prison.

Saudi Arabia's judicial system also made headlines this month for the sentence imposed on Australian national Mansor Almaribe, who was convicted of blasphemy while performing the Hajj in the kingdom, and sentenced to 500 lashes and a year in prison. The Australian government is pleading Almaribe's case.

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Australian man faces 500 lashes in Saudi Arabia for blasphemy

Australia appealed for leniency after one of its citizens was sentenced Wednesday to 500 lashes and a year in prison by a Saudi Arabian court.

Mansor Almaribe, 45, was found guilty of blasphemy after he was arrested last month in Medina while on a pilgrimage, Australian officials said.

It's unclear what Almaribe, a Shia Muslim from Victoria state, said or did to get arrested.

"The ambassador has urgently contacted Saudi authorities and will make strong representations, including to key figures in the Saudi government, seeking leniency," said Kate Sieper, a foreign affairs spokeswoman.

Family members said they are worried about his health.

"He is sick, and he has back injuries and he has diabetes," his son, Issam Almaribe, told CNN affiliate 9 News Australia.

Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Usama Al-Nugali said that the court system has an appeal process that Almaribe can resort to.

"We don't comment on court decisions or legal procedures. However, any court pleading, primary and judicial decisions could be appealed in the appeals court. All individuals have the right for a defense attorney, including non-Saudis who also enjoy the right of the presence of their diplomatic mission," he said.

Consular officials have contacted Almaribe several times by phone since his arrest in mid-November, and were in the courtroom during the reading of the verdict.

Australian officials said they were informed he was convicted of blasphemy and "making comments insulting to prophet Mohammed's relatives."

His sentence was originally two years imprisonment along with the 500 lashes, but the court reduced the sentence by a year, consular officials said. It was unclear when the lashing punishment will be carried out.

Blasphemy is punishable by up to a death sentence under the strict Muslim law in Saudi Arabia.

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