A man accused of sorcery was hauled to a public car park, where his head was chopped off in front of dozens of onlookers.

 

FACING world outrage for their barbaric practice of beheading prisoners, Saudi Arabia’s rulers responded in ruthless fashion.

A man accused of sorcery was hauled to a public car park, where his head was chopped off in front of dozens of onlookers.

Gruesome footage of the execution soon appeared on the internet.

It shows the executioner lining his sword up on the back of the accused, on his knees and blindfolded, before one swift stroke decapitates him.

Human rights groups yesterday branded the execution in Medina “appalling” and called on the Saudis to abolish the death penalty.

The Sudanese victim – Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki – is believed to be the 44th person executed there this year, and the 11th foreign national.

Saudi Arabia last year rejected a United Nations plea for a worldwide temporary ban on executions – and this year’s grim tally there is 17 more than for the whole of 2010.

Abdul Hamid is understood to have been arrested after he was entrapped by the Mutawa’een (religious police). He was asked to concoct a spell to cause an officer’s father to leave his second wife.

The officer says the “sorcerer” agreed to carry out the curse for £1,000 and he was sentenced to death by a secret court without being allowed a lawyer.

Amnesty International, which had urged King Abdullah to call off the beheading, said yesterday: “Abdul Hamid’s execution is appalling, as is Saudi Arabia’s continuing use of this most cruel and extreme penalty.

“That he should be executed without committing anything that would appear to constitute a crime is yet another deeply upsetting example.”

Some 140 prisoners are facing the Saudi death penalty, including Lebanese TV host Ali Hussain Sibat – accused of sorcery after making predictions about the future.

And executions have resumed at an alarming pace since the end of the holy month of Ramadan two months ago.