Readers Respond

Here are some comments that came in response to Tuesday's The Daily Star news report headlined “Executions Defended”

Mostafiz
Our foreign ministry and embassy in Riyadh could do more to save the eight people. I am very much shocked at the execution. The foreign ministry has made no comment even after four days of the execution. The government should protest this execution and compensate the victims' families.

Mohammad Hamid Hossain
If these eight people were European or American, could they behead them? They could not behead them because the US and the European countries are powerful. But as we are a poor nation, they could do this.

RCH
What was our embassy in Cairo doing? Did they go to the victim's family and tell them that not all of the eight people killed him? How about negotiating for the lives of the ones who did not hit the victim, by offering blood money? May be we could save seven of them. The problem is, under the KSA law, the killer and his/her accomplices are equally guilty of a murder.

Gopal Sengupta
The envoy wrongfully defended his government and its actions against our citizens. One example is well enough. Sampson, a Canadian citizen, was in jail on a murder charge and claimed that he was tortured while incarcerated, an accusation the Saudi authorities denied. He was released as the Saudi King granted him clemency. As a Bangladeshi Canadian, I find the Saudi envoy's defence farcical. The KSA's law is for the rich not for the poor.

Dr Karim
If they were Western or US citizens, the Saudi government would compromise, wouldn't it? How come eight people were beheaded for a single murder?

Husna
Human rights have not been denied to the workers. They were punished for killing a person. A Saudi killer was also beheaded in public with them that day. Those human rights organisations should first compare Saudi Arabia's murder and other crime rate with other countries' murder and crime rate. Sharia law is created by Allah, and it is worst for the criminals.

Nasarullah
Islam teaches tolerance, respect, perseverance and pardon contrary to what we see now. It is certainly true that Islam does not allow killing of innocents and of course, these people, if involved in murder, should be punished following the appropriate judicial procedure. The Saudi government could hand over the convicts to our government for trial, rather than beheading them in public as per the KSA laws.