Toddler beheaded in supermarket in Saudi Arabia

[celina12]

Toddler beheaded in supermarket

Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font Edmund Tadros
March 4, 2008 - 1:51PM

A man reportedly held a knife to the throat of his 15-month-old nephew and decapitated him in front of his mother in a Saudi Arabian supermarket.

The 25-year-old Syrian man beheaded the toddler apparently after having a dispute with the toddler's parents, his sister and brother-in-law, Arab News reported.

Another newspaper, the Saudi Gazette, reported that the toddler was 18 months old.

The killing happened in front of shoppers and staff in the fruit and vegetable section of the Al-Marhaba supermarket yesterday morning.

A police officer told Arab News: "The murderer was in a dispute with the boy's mother and her husband. He chopped off the boy's head in front of the mother to get back at her."

Another witness, Abu Muhammad, who is in his mid-60s, told the paper: "It happened so quickly. Before people could intervene, the man had cut more than half way through the child's neck."

Another local expressed his disbelief that anyone could carry out such an act.

"No one could bear the gruesome sight of the boy's decapitated body lying on the floor," Muneer, a car mechanic, told Arab News.

"How could someone do such a thing?

"I just can't understand it ... I still can't believe it."

One shopper, Ahmed Abdul-Rahman, told the Saudi Gazette: "I was shopping when I heard a scream and saw people running toward the shop's pastry corner.

"When I arrived there, I couldn't believe what I saw.

"A headless body of a child lay on the floor and the head was lying nearby soaked in blood."

The man was arrested at the supermarket, reports AFP. Murder is punishable by death in the Islamic country, and the sentence is usually carried out by beheading.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/tod...s_cid=rss_news

[spot]

He was either mad or bad, then, wasn't he.

[sunny_bunny]

Originally Posted by spot

He was either mad or bad, then, wasn't he.

And obviously dangerous to know.

[Bryn Mawr]

Originally Posted by sunny_bunny

And obviously dangerous to know.

Someone had to say it

[Galbally]

Even after several days, I still find this crime unbelieveably shocking and disturbing, there isn't any context to put it into as I can't think of another example thats even similar. I know that of course equally terrible murders or events have occurred, the Jamie Bolger Case in England was another very disturbing case for a lot of reasons, but it was also quite different, there are also, as spot has pointed out many examples of men taking revenge by murdering children, but still, for a grown man to do something like this taking a knife and beheading a child in public, because of a family argument, in a supermarket, its mind boggling. I would have to say it must be the act of a deranged person, certainly a psychopath of some extreme form.

[spot]

Originally Posted by Bryn Mawr

Someone had to say it

Bloody newbies lowering the tone, eh?

[spot]

Originally Posted by Galbally

I would have to say it must be the act of a deranged person, certainly a psychopath of some extreme form.

You know, I'm quite sure you're mistaken. I think it's some poor chap whose tether snapped and who had no idea at all what he was about to do, no intention of the outcome, just a spasm of utter fury and there it is, done. I think any of us can be pushed to it.

[spot]

Originally Posted by spot

Bloody newbies lowering the tone, eh?

I didn't mean that, sunny_bunny, it's just a comment on me being the guy who always lowers the tone. If you've not seen how far and how fast I can sink you might not have realized that.

[Bryn Mawr]

Originally Posted by spot

Bloody newbies lowering the tone, eh?

Not in the slightest! Damn'd near posted it myself but thought it might be too obvious for this particular thread.

[Clodhopper]

Spot: shudders. Brr. How would you live with yourself afterwards? I don't approve of the death penalty, but at that point it's probably a mercy.