Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in show of force by an emboldened Moh bin Salman

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/saudi-arabia-executes-81-people-show-force-emboldened-mohammed-bin-ncna1292176

by mardiyah • 4 years ago

26 14 4 years ago

lighttower2• 4 years ago

I'm actually afraid of visiting Saudi, even for business. A new woman in the office shared her experience growing up in Saudi (her father worked in oil and gas) in a high end foreign person's compound. schools are in English and women can wear whatever they want. She had an Australian neighbor that made homebrew wine in his basement. He was decapitated. They moved back to Calgary shortly thereafter.

godfreyantonell• 4 years ago

That would scare me. The neighbor was decapitated why?

mikestew• 4 years ago

...that made homebrew wine in his basement It is my understanding that alcohol is a no-no, so that would be my first guess.

helloworld11• 4 years ago

For making wine in his basement instead of some other criminal conviction!? I knew they are strict but I didn't imagine it to be that harsh. I've had friends that lived in foreign white collar worker compounds in Saudi and they mentioned that alcohol was common and relatively, discreetly tolerated inside.

inglor_cz2• 4 years ago

This is weird. Making alcohol isn't AFAIK a capital offense even in Saudi Arabia. I would expect some lashing and a high fine accompanied by deportation.

https://www.expatica.com/sa/living/gov-law-admin/rules-and-l...

Drugs would be a different story.

netizen-9368242• 4 years ago

I'm going to be that guy.

Alcohol is a drug, no two ways around it.

mike00632• 4 years ago

From the article: "Despite the incendiary rhetoric that the government used to justify these executions, many charges didn’t merit the death penalty under Saudi law and often didn’t even merit arrest..."

Galaxity• 4 years ago

I'm very skeptical that an Australian in a foreign residential compound was decapitated for that. I can't find anything with Google. Isn't alcohol allowed for foreigners in those places? Do you know anymore that you can tell us?

I could see a Saudi Arabian being executed but as other people said it's not a capital offense.

lighttower2• 4 years ago

She was a 10 or 12 year old at the time. So her memory of the details would be in question. Notwithstanding, there is data to support that alcohol related offences are punished by execution [1]. They seem to make a difference between production of alcohol within Saudi Arabia and consumption.

[1] https://deathpenaltyworldwide.org/database/#/results/country...

Gunax2• 4 years ago

Remove 'emboldenee' from the title. There was a time when journalists actually did news, and not report whatever slant they wanted to appeal with.

musicale• 4 years ago

It appears to be an op-ed rather than a news story, as it's in the THINK opinion/analysis/essay section rather than the news section. Also note the byline:

By Abdullah Alaoudh, general secretary of Saudi Arabia’s National Assembly Party, and John Hursh, program director of Democracy for the Arab World Now

Gunax2• 4 years ago

It's been a few days and I dont know if anyone will see this... but you're absolutely right. I should have checked the section. It just sort of reads like a news article, atleast for the dirst few paragraphs.

Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in show of force by an emboldened Moh bin Salman

Related Stories