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19 March 2024

Saudi king saves woman from beheading

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By Staff

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia personally intervened to save a local woman from execution after she was sentenced to death eight years ago for murdering a Yemeni man, newspapers in the Gulf Kingdom reported on Wednesday.

Amina bin Mohammed Dagreeri, 55, had been on the death row all that time but the execution was not carried out to give way to mediation efforts to persuade the victim’s relatives to drop their demand for her death and pardon the defendant.

Amina killed the Yemeni man, who was employed by her, following an argument at her house in the southern Saudi province of Jazan more than eight years ago. A Turkish man who helped her was sentenced to seven years in prison.

“The victim’s father, Mohammed Dareen, came with other relatives to Jazan and declared that he was dropping his demand for death punishment against Amina in response to an appeal by the Monarch,” Okaz daily said.

Under Islamic law, which is strictly enforced in conservative Saudi Arabia, a killer can be saved from the gallows and walk free if pardoned by the victim’s relatives in return for diya (blood money).