2013: Abdullah Fandi Al-Shammary, long time coming
February 5th, 2020 Headsman
On this date in 2013, the longest-serving (or -waiting) condemned prisoner in Saudi Arabia was beheaded for a murder committed 32 years prior.
Per media reports, he bludgeoned another man to death during a neighborhood brawl in Ha’il around the age of 21. Initially convicted of manslaughter, he paid a “blood money” fine and was released. He got married and resumed his life.
But two years after that — this seems to be about seven or eight years after the homicide — relatives of the victim convinced Saudi authorities to re-arrest Al-Shammary for murder, and this re-trial brought a death sentence.
Only after all the dead man’s heirs could come of age and all refuse offers of blood money to pardon him could he be put to death. Although he could not win the pity of these family members, he gained quite a lot of sympathy in Saudi Arabia since he essentially lived a lifetime on death row — reportedly a model prisoner who memorized the Quran and led his fellow prisoners in the dawn prayer of his last day on earth.
Ha’il Gov. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Saad bin Abdul Aziz personally interceded with an unsuccessful attempt to convince those heirs to pardon Al-Shammary; upon the latter’s execution donors gave his family a house and one million Saudi riyal (about a quarter-million dollars) in cash.
On this day..
- 1803: Antonio Lavagnini, impiccato e squartato - 2019
- 1892: A day in the death penalty around Kentucky - 2018
- 1717: Anna Maria Wagemann, the last witch burned at Fürfeld - 2017
- 1886: Dennis Dilda - 2016
- 1601: Starina Novak, hajduk - 2015
- 1999: Leo Echegaray, by lethal injection in the Philippines - 2014
- 10 executions that defined the 1970s - 2013
- 1862: Samuel Calhoun, antebellum serial killer - 2013
- 1860: John Guthrie, antislavery horse thief - 2012
- Feast Day of St. Agatha - 2011
- 1945: Denise Bloch, Lilian Rolfe and Violette Szabo - 2010
- 1894: Auguste Vaillant, bomb-throwing anarchist - 2009
- 1597: The 26 Martyrs of Japan, for God and trade routes - 2008
Entry Filed under: 21st Century,Beheaded,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Murder,Public Executions,Ripped from the Headlines,Saudi Arabia
Tags: 2010s, 2013, abdullah al-shammary, february 5, hail
