Saudi Arabia advertises jobs for executioners

Photo: Daily Mail

The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has increased lately. With that, the demand for executioners has increased which has led the government to post advertisements to hire eight more executioners.

While the advertisement placed on Saudi civil services portal does not list any special qualification needed for the job, the main responsibility includes “executing a judgment of death”. The candidate will also be required to perform amputations on those convicted of lesser crimes like theft, etc.

Although the jobs are classified as ‘religious functionaries’, the candidates are not expected to be paid any better than workers in other sectors, with the salaries closer to the lower end of the civil services pay scale.

With the beheading of yet another Pakistani, in this case, for drug smuggling on Sunday, the total number of executions carried out by the kingdom has reached 84 so far this year, as compared to the official count of 88 executions in 2014.

However, the Human Rights Watch claimed the total number of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2014 exceeded 90.

According to HRW, Most of the people executed are charged for murder, but 38 had committed drug offenses. About half were Saudi, and the rest from Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, India, Indonesia, Burma, Chad, Eritrea, Philippines and Sudan.

According to a leading Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney, as many as 50 Pakistanis were awaiting execution of death sentence as of late 2014.

Saudi Arabia was ranked third in the world for handing out death sentences in 2014, just behind China and Iran.