JEDDAH, 11 May — Four Pakistani men were executed in the northern city of Tabuk yesterday for bludgeoning to death a compatriot so they could steal his possessions, the Interior Ministry said.
The ministry added that the four were convicted of spreading “corruption on earth” — a charge which carries the death penalty under Islamic law — after they killed the Pakistani man and divided up his belongings.
The ministry identified the four as Muhammad Aslam Haneef, Shahid Mahmoud Ghulam, Arshad Mahmoud Tufail and Abdul Shukoor Yousuf. The name of their victim was Dayem Khan Muhabbat Khan.
“The four men invited Dayem to their residence. While he was sleeping, they beat him on his head with iron and wooden bars until he died,” the ministry said in a statement.
After stealing his money, they buried his body in an attempt to cover up the crime. However, the police soon caught up with the criminals.
The Kingdom executes murderers, rapists and drug smugglers in a bid to maintain security and stability.
According to official statistics carried by Al-Watan newspaper yesterday, 72,512 crimes and related incidents were reported in the Kingdom in 2000, an increase of 11,790 cases on the previous year.
The report said Saudis with 34,790 convictions formed the largest group of offenders.
The Makkah Region accounted for 37 percent of the crimes, followed by Riyadh with 30 percent, and the Eastern Province with 10 percent.
Of the total incidents, major crimes such as murder, attempted murder, murder threat and kidnapping accounted for two percent, the report pointed out.
Physical assaults and fistfights were 14 percent, while petty cases represented 72 percent. There were 8,610 alcohol-related cases, including 255 cases of selling and possessing liquor.
The largest number of crimes and misdemeanors (34.9 percent) were reported in Rabie Al-Awwal, the third month of the Hijrah year, followed by Dhul Qaada and Rajab.
The report attributed the increase in the number of crimes in the three months to the fact that more people stayed inside the country instead of holidaying abroad, while there was a greater number of visitors during the period.
A study released last year called for setting up a supreme authority for crime prevention in the Kingdom. The study prepared by security expert Dr. Khaled Al-Beshir noted that crime rate had increased considerably in the last quarter of the 20th century.
The study, titled Fighting crime in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, pointed to new types of crime in modern society — those related to economy, environment, hijacking, terrorism and drugs.
It said crime has a great impact on social life and is a cause of worry for officials and intellectuals in many countries.
