Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged Saudi Arabia to scrap amputation sentences against six men convicted of robbery, with HRW on Saturday calling the sentencing "prohibited torture." "Cutting off someone's hands and feet is torture, plain and simple," said HRW senior Middle East researcher Christoph Wilcke.
The New York-based watchdog said the supreme court should "void" the sentence and in a letter urged the Saudi Human Rights Commission "to press for a retrial." On Friday Amnesty issued a similar plea to King Abdullah, the ruler of the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom. The sentences to chop off the right hands and left feet of the six Saudis is currently before the Supreme Court for approval and could be carried out within days if ratified by the king, Amnesty said in a statement.
Both the London-based group and the HRW said the convicted men were forced to confess. "'Cross amputation' is a strikingly cruel form of punishment that amounts to torture and should have no place in a criminal justice system," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa interim director. "We are urging the king to use his authority to urgently commute these sentences and spare these men this horrific punishment," added Luther.
Amnesty said the men are Barzan bin Raheel al-Shammari, 29, Amer bin Eid al-Jarbaa, 26, Mohammad bin Ali al-Shammari, 25, Mohammad bin Dhiyab Maddhi, 27, Abdullah bin Dhiyab Maddhi, 30, and Bandar bin Abbas al-Asadi, 22. The bedouin men were arrested in October 2010 in Riyadh, accused of "highway robbery" and taken to Malaz prison in the capital. All were allegedly beaten and forced to confess to the charges against them, Amnesty said.
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