Prince beheaded publicly

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33874, 20 June 1975, Page 13

Prince beheaded publicly

(N.Z. Press Assn —Copyright)

RIYADH, June 19

The executioner’s silver sword flashed three times against the setting sun, to the chant of “God is great,” and with the last slash the head of Prince Feisal Bin Musaed of Saudi Arabia fell to the ground.

Thousands of Saudi Arabians turned out in Riyadh yesterday for the beheading of the American-educated Prince, who had been convicted of assassinating King Feisal three months ago.

White-robed, blindfold, and bound, the Prince, who was 27, did not utter a word as he was led into Execution Square to stand before the Al Hokm Palace of Justice.

Saudi Arabia, which traditionally beheads murderers with one slash of a sword,

i prolonged the execution of s the Prince because of the s seriousness of the crime aci cording to the teachings of e the Koran. The executioner’s sword

slashed twice against the neck before a final blow severed the assassin’s head.

i The thousands gathered in front of the palace shouted: “Allah Akhbar!” (“God is great!”) each time the goldhandled silver sword descended through the air at one-minute intervals. The Prince had been found guilty of gunning down King Feisal on March 25 during celebrations marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed. An official statement had said that he was “trying to touch off a war against Islam.” Saudi Arabia’s highest religious court, which judges cases by the precepts of Islam, tried the Prince in secret.

He was the first Prince in Saudi Arabia’s Royal Family to be executed. The Court described the Prince as “one of the greatest corrupters on earth,” and said that he had acted alone in “combating God and his Prophet.” The Prince, a drop-out from the University of Colorado and the University of California, had been arrested in the United States on drug charges, but freed through diplomatic intervention.