(AFP) / 13 March 2013
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed seven men convicted of armed robbery despite last-minute appeals by international rights groups that their lives be spared, a witness in the southern city of Abha said.
The execution was ‘implemented a while ago at a public square in Abha,’ the witness told AFP by telephone, adding that the defendants were ‘shot dead’ and not beheaded as is customary in the kingdom.
The announcement came soon after Amnesty International released a statement renewing calls on the Saudi authorities to halt the executions.
They ‘look set to be shot on Wednesday morning,’ said Amnesty, which described the executions as ‘brutality.’
The seven men — Sarhan Al Mashaikh, Saeed Al Zahrani, Ali Al Shahri, Nasser Al Qahtani, Saeed Al Shahrani, Abdulaziz Al Amri and Ali Al Qahtani — were charged with organising a criminal group, armed robbery and raiding and breaking into jewellery stores in 2005, and sentenced to death in 2009.
International rights groups have protested that the men — now aged between 20 to 24 years old according to news website sabq.org — were condemned for crimes committed when they were juveniles.
They had been scheduled to die on March 5, but their executions were postponed for a week.
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