lankabusinessonline.com,  Tue Feb 20 22:17:46 EST 2007

    February 21 (LBO) – Saudi Arabia has 'crucified' four Sri Lankans after beheading them, including a man who was told he was only serving a prison-term, media reports from desert kingdom said.Agency reports quoting a Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh said the four Sri Lankans were executed in a busy market square Monday and their bodies were tied to a wooden beams or 'crucified' and put on public display to be a lesson to expatriate workers.
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- The Academic

It is sad to see that nobody in the forum is interested in this topic. As Sri Lankans, what happened
to those four in Saudi Arabia should worry us. Unfortunately it seems it is NOT.

The Western propaganda machine has started working on this report.  This is their usual game.  What ever the western powers do is right.  It is unfortunate what happened to the Sri Lankans and there is no doubt about it.  We are with their families. The execution was carried out and the Saudi Govt has announced it but the crucifixion part is just to sling mud and to make an issue out of it.  There are thousands of Sri Lankans working in Riyadh and nobody saw the crucifixion. The Lanka Academic should exercise good judgement in putting a news report to the forum. Not incredible ones like this.  It does not honor the lost lives.  If you open the forum to discuss the execution we are with it.  Not some rubbish imaginary story.

If they were really put up on poles (as the report claims) then we really have something barbaric going on. It is not  Islamic to humiliate the dead, and I doubt very much the truth behind this story. However we do have an embassy there (nearly hopeless.... in fact the only embassy that does something in the middle east, and that too from very recently, is said to be the Kuwaiti embassy) and they should go into this in a big way. I support beheading after trial... but humiliation by staking there bodies up (which i still doubt happened) is another. Can Stephen or someone confirm what really happened?


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Sri Lankan politicians who does not want to carryout death penalty are indirectly responsible for the death of the 4 guys. May be they thought that they will not be given the death penalty as the practice in Sri Lanka, even after commiting the worst of crimes.


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Peace for Sri Lanka

I am not sure about the views expressed in this forum, but I am sure that the Saudi Government took a us on
a ride. Probably they thought the convicts are Sri Lankans, and there was nobody to care for them. According
to some news item, one guy was given 15 years in prison, but he was also crucified on that day. If that is true
that is injustice done.

I personally support the active death penalty in any country. As usual GOSL has no backbone to activate it, but it's name sake only.

Specially I hail Singapore for their law and order. They did not bend to the Ausie presure in executing the drug-peddler.

If SL had the death penalty in operation most of the organized crimes and drug related gangs will not operate as their modus operandi is to do the highest possible crime and if get caught live in the prison and operate within.

GOSL should not interfere by apealing to any country diplomatically on this regard as criminals know what they do.

One of the humor related to this story is that the SL actor Ranjan Ramanayake had made representations to the SL President to voice against this as he had become the champion of many middle-east house maids as SL Foreign Employment Buereu and it's ministor does little. Everything is good of the actor other than going back on his own words which he emphasized in his own movie, a tamil spin off 'One-Shot'. In this he executes the criminal with a messege. So why he goes back on his words. Is he too planning to become a politician like his aunt, uncle and cousin...

SLH-Saviour wrote:

Is he too planning to become a politician like his aunt, uncle and cousin...

Ranjan Ramanayake (actually Alponso) doesnot have any politician relatives.

The KSA Government seems to dispense a sort of "justice" in this way to all, including the criminal elements who are
of their own kind. I seem to remember some Amnetsy International reports and complaints about this sort of Saudi "justice".

Under the circumstances, it would seem to me, that whatever is right and wrong about that kind of "justice" is the karma of the KSA Government officials. Not yours or mine.

Do you disagree?

Quote:

Saudi Arabia has 'crucified' four Sri Lankans after beheading them

Perhaps the LBO ought to get a new byline. "We tell things as they really aren't".

What the events show is that Saudi '.' don't need any lessons in stupidity from their Sinhalese brethren. You display beheaded corpses to dissuade immigrants from forming armed gangs. So:

a) You do this on a Monday when they are all working, instead of the usual day of a Friday when the centre of Riyad is full of them on a day off.

b) You make a deep study of the psychology of the potential armed robber whose thought process goes more or less like this. "This plan of mine to go off to the Yemeni border to buy a load of AK47s and then rob all the gold souks in Saudi is no good. Just look at those headless bodies, and here's silly me thinking that all that was going to happen was thirty years in jail and an amputated hand and foot. I'll forget all about it and go and serve the shwarma and falafell at the afternoon shift in the sandwich bar after all."

c) To show how these actions are atypical of our normal gentle nature let's time the executions to coincide exactly with a high profile public meeting between the King and the Saudi Human Rights Committee (those who suspect political sabotage rather than stupidity in that last decision are beoing unduly cynical).

The truth is that whatever the death penalty serves for in Saudi it is not deterrance. Take this murder case from yesterdays paper. http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25768&Itemid=146
A NEPALESE shepherd confessed to murdering a man and severely maiming another a year ago, after they caught him having sex with a camel and threatened to tell his employer, reported Okaz on Monday.
[...]Dahal, 23, and the victims were all found unconscious at the farm, which is in the middle of the desert a year ago. Nidar subsequently died from his wounds.
[...]In his affidavit, Dahal said after he was caught, he had intended to murder both men and commit suicide. He waited until they were asleep, and then with a single blow, he bashed Nidar’s head with an axe. He did the same to Mohammed, but  he survived.
Afterward, he took a toxic substance used for cleaning camels, trying to kill himself, but later woke up in hospital.
Just the kind of criminal that would be deterred by the death penalty.

Still there is still a chance for Sri Lankan . to wrest the sporting crown from their Saudi counterparts. They can:

(i) demand the death penalty for terrorists as a way of dissuading suicide bombers;

(ii)show the superiority of the Sri Lankan security forces which do not display dead bodies in public, but take photos of them and put them on the government website for all to see;

(iii)laugh at the technological ignorance of the Saudis who have confessions repeated before a judge, instead of videotaping them for the web.

How does that account for the Westerners who are sentenced to death and then pardoned and deported ?
As for the the sheep, camels and other livestock in the KSA, they are in danger not only from foreign shepherds but local ones as well

Quote:

How does that account for the Westerners who are sentenced to death and then pardoned and deported ?

It wasn't intended to account for it? It doesn't account for the rotation of the sun around the earth either

I will presume you meant to ask an additional question. There have been two cases of westerners condemned for murder that I know of. The first was the case of two nurses in a hospital who were accused of murdering the matron, as a result of a lesbian split apparently. They claimed they were framed and that the woman was really murdered by the Philipino enforcers she used in her money-lending business. They failed to explain how they had managed to rack up thousands of dollars on the dead woman's credit card though. The general consensus amongst people I knew was that the guilty verdict was correct, though with the caveat that the dead woman was a bitch who deserved to be murdered. Whatever, because the next-of-kin was the brother who took the blood money donated by various well-wishers, horrified at British women in the clutches of Saudi justice. If the next-of-kin accepts the blood money, then the person is released automatically, as there is no longer a claim against him.

The second case involved various jack-the-lads who were convicted of killing a fellow Brit by blowing up his SUV. They had been arrested earlier for alcohol peddling and some weeks later the world was treated to the spectacle of them confessing to the murder on TV. The confessions were so obviously not spontaneous that Saudi law enforcement's credibility suffered a massive nose-dive, but as is common in Saudi they were accepted by the judge. Massive pressure was put on the Saudi government to ensure their release, but releasing them too soon would mean that the Interior Minister, and King's brother, would suffer massive loss of face, and this is the one thing a Saudi will not tolerate. So they stayed in jail a decorous time until they could be let go. The thing here is that the UK is one of Saudi's two main allies and arms suppliers, and at the same time Saudi is a massive market for UK goods and labour, so the thing done was to wait until things settled down and let the buggers stew a while.

Nobody believed the official version; that the other guy had been killed in a turf war over the supply of Tetley's bitter and Johnny Walker to the expats. The general consensus of opinion is that the Saudi Interior Ministry was at that time in denial over the existence of Al-Qaeeda terrorist cells in its territory, and had picked on the Westerners it had in custody because investigators had been told to rule out a terrorist attempt. I had a friend who insisted that the people involved really were guilty, and that they had planted the bomb at the insistence of MI6, who wanted to persuade the Saudis to take stronger action against Al-Qaeeda. The person who told us this however was stark, raving mad, and the theory failed to explain other bizarre aspects of the confession.

Quote:

As for the the sheep, camels and other livestock in the KSA, they are in danger not only from foreign shepherds but local ones as well

I doubt if there are any local shepherds left now, apart from the Bedouins who straggle the border with Jordan. The norm is to have a Bangladeshi or Nepali or Afghan shepherd and go out to visit the flock at weekends and play football. I was friends with the official cartographers, and one day they came across an Indian who had been lured to Saudi by a compatriot offering him a job as a computer programmer. When he arrived at the airport he was somewhat surprised to be led into the desert, given a jerry can of water and some rice and told to look after the sheep. Eventually my mates picked him up and hid him in their flat until Hajj had passed, when they took him to the police as a pilgrim who had lost his passport and arranged for his repatriation.

The other reason the livestock is likely to be safe from molestation by locals is simple; why mess around with the sheep when you can do it with the shepherd

And remember that camels are vicious beasties, and like elephants never forget a slight. The last thing I would want to do is rub one up the wrong way.

Negambo wrote...
Ranjan Ramanayake (actually Alponso) doesnot .........................[/quote]

Mr/Mrs/Ms/ Rev, Bla and Bla . Negambo what do you mean by this...
You want to show us "Ranjan Ramanayake has changed his name"..
It is upto him...
Why do you bother..
Nobody ask whether you are Negambo or Madampella or Poruthota no?

In Saudi there is law however tough it is - after the court hearing the punishment is given according to law, death penalty is carried out without political interference.

In SLanka there is law - not very tough, death penalty is only for murder - after a long period of court hearing the death penalty is given according to law, but never carried out as the politicians want to be born in the heaven. But dozens of people without any charges get killed at the hands of authorities.

I think the system in Saudi is catering for its law abiding people.


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Peace for Sri Lanka

Janaka wrote:

Negombo wrote:

Ranjan Ramanayake (actually Alponso) doesnot .........................

Mr/Mrs/Ms/ Rev, Bla and Bla . Negambo what do you mean by this...
You want to show us "Ranjan Ramanayake has changed his name"..
It is upto him...
Why do you bother..
Nobody ask whether you are Negambo or Madampella or Poruthota no?

 you missed the main subject, which is, RRs relatives are not politicians.
btw, Nobody ask you to reply to my post either.
why bother ?