JEDDAH: A Saudi man convicted of beating his wife to death was executed in Jeddah yesterday, the Interior Ministry said. Omar bin Abid Wakdani had beaten his wife until she was dead following a family dispute, the ministry said in a statement carried by the state media.
Reports of wife bashing have become frequent in the local press and observers hope that the execution would have a deterrent effect.
On Sept. 17, a 48-year-old woman died in Jubail after her husband beat her with a stick. Doctors failed to save her even though she was rushed to hospital by her 26-year-old son. In Najran, a 30-year-old mother of five died on Oct. 1 after her husband assaulted her. She arrived in hospital unconscious and died later after swallowing her tongue.
Last March Arab News reported about the execution of a Saudi man who killed his wife in Taif.
A victim of domestic violence told Arab News that though the execution might prevent to some extent other men from committing such offenses, the authorities are always late to take action against abusive men. “What is the point of punishing the wrongdoer after the loss of life,” said a mother of two who has been constantly abused by her husband.
In a second execution yesterday, Fawzi bin Abd Al-Badi was beheaded in Qurayat, in the northeast of the Kingdom, for shooting dead a fellow Saudi.
