Justice, Saudi Style: Bathroom Slip-Up Leads to Death Penalty

This Reuters dispatch from the Saud kingdom can hardly be believed:

An Egyptian living in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to death for desecrating the Koran and renouncing Islam, Saudi newspapers and a rights activist said on Wednesday.

Okaz and al-Hayat newspapers said worshippers at a mosque in the desert town of Arar in north Saudi Arabia lodged a complaint with police saying the man, a pharmacist, had left copies of the Muslim holy book in the mosque washrooms.

They said a court found the man guilty on Tuesday of no longer being a Muslim because of his acts and 'violating the boundaries set by God'. They said the man, whom they identified only as an Arab national, pleaded guilty.

Saudi Arabia executes murderers, rapists and drug traffickers to death by public beheading, according to an austere version of Sunni Islam. Anyone found guilty of apostasy can also face death.

The heart breaks. The mind reels. The man will be executed. The international community will remain silent.

Comments

[jamal]

This is silly. if it was McDonalds toilet then maybe, but since it was mosques toilets then sounds like possibility of genuine mistake.