Saudi Arabia’s head cutting specialist has revealed the chilling details of how he beheads Nigerians and other people sentenced to death for drug trafficking and other offences.
Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, a black man, stated this in a rare interview with Arab News, a Saudi Arabian newspaper.
According
to the BBC, Al-Beshi is “Saudi Arabia’s leading executioner.” He leads a
team of beheaders that execute prisoners from all countries including
Nigeria.
Al-Beshi, who was born in 1961 (57 or 58 years old), claims to have executed 10 people in one day.
“It
doesn’t matter to me: Two, four, 10 — As long as I’m doing God’s will,
it doesn’t matter how many people I execute,” he once told a newspaper
in another interview.
He started at a prison in the town of Taif,
where his job was to handcuff and blindfold the prisoners before their
execution. “Because of this background, I developed a desire to be an
executioner,” he said.
He applied for the job and was accepted.
Al-Beshi
performs executions using a sword. Occasionally he uses a gun. He also
performs amputations of limbs when required under Saudi Arabia’s sharia
law. He is married with seven children. He has been known to allow his
children to help clean his sword.
“I deal with my family with
kindness and love. They aren’t afraid when I come back from an
execution. Sometimes they help me clean my sword.”
He added: “I successfully trained my son Musaed, 22, as an executioner and he was approved and chosen.”
Daily
Advent reported yesterday that Saudi Arabia may behead 10 of the 23
Nigerian drug traffickers on death row in the country, on the same day,
any time from now!
Al-Beshi cut off his first head with a sword in 1998.
A
Nigerian woman, Kudirat Adeshola Afolabi, was beheaded about two weeks
ago, although it was not stated whether she was executed by Al-Beshi.
Al-Beshi described his first execution in 1998.
He
said: “The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the
sword, I severed his head. It rolled metres away…People are amazed at
how fast [the sword] can separate the head from the body.”
Al-Beshi
also explained that in the case of someone convicted of murder, he
visits the victim’s family before execution to seek forgiveness for the
criminal.
If the family forgives the killer, it can lead to the criminal’s life being spared.
Once
an execution goes ahead, his only conversation with the prisoner is to
tell him or her to recite the Muslim declaration of belief, the Shahada.
He said the prisoners become weak out of fear before they are beheaded.
“When
they get to the execution square, their strength drains away. Then I
read the execution order, and at a signal, I cut the prisoner’s head
off,” Al-Beshi said.
Public beheadings usually take place in Saudi Arabia around 9 am.
Deera
Square in central Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, is the location of
public beheadings. The place is also known locally as “Chop-chop
square” because it is where heads are “chopped off!”
The
convicted person is walked into the square and kneels in front of the
executioner. The executioner uses a sword known as a sulthan to remove
the condemned person’s head from his or her body at the neck.
After
the convicted person is pronounced dead, a police official announces the
crimes committed by the beheaded alleged criminal and the process is
complete.
The official might announce the same before the actual execution.
This
is the most common method of execution in Saudi Arabia because it is
specifically called for by Sharia law, which Saudi Arabia practices.
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