Saudis Face Soaring Blood-Money Sums
27th July 2008
MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Badr al-Hasnani was 18 when he got into a fight with a soccer rival and fatally stabbed him. He confessed and was sentenced to death by beheading, as prescribed by sharia, or Islamic law.
For more than two years, Hasnani has been in a juvenile detention center awaiting execution while his family has tried to save him.
The parents of the victim, Majid al-Mahmoudi, have three options under sharia: to demand punishment, to spare Hasnani’s life to receive blessings from God, or to grant clemency in exchange for diyah, or blood money.
When I was a kid, I always wondered what it would be like to go back to the Middle Ages, only taking modern technology with me. Little did I know that I could do that today, by visiting Saudi Arabia. It’s the 7th century, with AK-47s.
The Mahmoudis agreed to accept diyah, setting the sum at $2 million in cash, much more than Hasnani’s family can afford.
I guess “blessings from God” don’t compare to cold cash in Muslim lands. Perhaps they aren’t so medieval after all.