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For all wondering about Saudi Arabia and beheadings read up.
From a Human Rights watch report on Saudi Arabia http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/saudi/
Some 121 Saudi citizens and non-Western foreigners were executed by beheading in Saudi Arabia in 2000 after convictions for murder, armed robbery, rape, drug trafficking, and other offenses, according to statistics compiled by the Reuters news agency. At least seventy-five people were beheaded in 2001 as of mid-November, according to the same tally. The Saudi Interior Ministry routinely announced the executions but provided little information about the trials of these men and women, including the evidence that judges found had determined their guilt.
The Saudi Ministry of Information stated on its web site that "Saudi Arabian opinion is that capital punishment is the most effective way of safeguarding the most basic human right: the right to life. It places a high value on the life of the murder victim and, as evidence of that high value and as a deterrent to others, it exacts a high price from the murderer." The ministry did not address the fact that Saudis and foreigners have been beheaded not only for murder but for nonviolent offences such as "sorcery" and drug trafficking.
The June 2000 execution of an Indonesian maid, Warni Samiran Audi, drew criticism from Indonesian government officials and caused an uproar among Indonesian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Samiran Audi was executed for allegedly killing the wife of her Saudi employer. The Indonesian embassy in Riyadh was not officially notified of the execution, according to Din Syamsuddin, the director general for labor in the Manpower Ministry, although Indonesian officials had followed the maid's case for three years, seeking her release or a reduced sentence.
In cases involving foreigners, governments rarely if ever publicly raise fair-trial concerns or engage in other vigorous public advocacy on behalf of their nationals, prior to or after their executions. But a sharp rise in the number of Indians beheaded on drug-related offenses (from one in 1998 to twenty-four in 2000, according to the Indian ambassador in Saudi Arabia) prompted some Indian officials to press for a government investigation of the duping of Indian migrant workers, mainly from the state of Kerala, by drug dealers posing as job recruiters. Authorities became aware of the practice following a complaint from the mother of a twenty-year-old carpenter, who she claimed was tricked into carrying drugs into Saudi Arabia. He reportedly was arrested at the airport and beheaded in 1995.
Associated Press correspondent Anwar Faruqi described the scene at public beheadings in an article published on April 24, 2000:
"Policemen clear a public square of traffic and lay out a thick blue plastic sheet about 16 feet by 16 feet on the asphalt. The condemned, who has been given tranquilizers, is led from a police car dressed in his own clothing. His eyes are covered with cotton pads, bound in plaster and finally covered with a black cloth.
"Barefoot, with feet shackled and hands cuffed behind his back, the prisoners is led by a police officer to the center of the sheet and made to kneel. An Interior Ministry official reads out the prisoner's name and crime before a crowd of witnesses.
"A soldier hands a long, curved sword to the executioner. He approaches the prisoner from behind and jabs him with the tip of the sword in the back so that the prisoner instinctively raises his head.
"It usually takes just one swing of the sword to sever the head, often sending it flying about three feet. Paramedics bring the head to a doctor, who uses a gloved hand to stop the fountain of blood spurting from the neck. The doctor sews the head back on, and the body is wrapped in the blue plastic sheet and taken away in an ambulance."
Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Punishment: Flogging and Amputations
Saudi courts continue to impose cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, including amputations of hands and feet for robbery, and floggings for lesser crimes such as "sexual deviance" and drunkenness. The number of lashes, not clearly prescribed by law, varies according to the discretion of judges and ranges from dozens of lashes to several thousand, usually applied over a period of weeks or months. A court in Qunfuda sentenced nine Saudi alleged transvestites in April 2000: five drew prison terms of six years and 2,600 lashes, and the other four were sentenced to five years and 2,400 lashes. The floggings reportedly were to be carried out in fifty sessions, with a fifteen-day hiatus between each punishment. In February 2001, a court reportedly sentenced a captain in the Saudi army to seventy lashes because he used a cellular telephone on a domestic flight.
Amputations have also been reported in Interior Ministry statements. In September 2000, the right hand of a Bangladeshi man was removed after he was convicted of robbing pilgrims at Mecca's Grand Mosque. In August 2000, Okaz reported that a court ordered the surgical removal of the left eye of Egyptian Abd al-Muti Abd al-Rahman Muhammad after he was convicted of throwing acid in the face of another Egyptian. The operation was performed in a hospital in Medina. In addition to this punishment, Abdel Rahman was reportedly fined U.S. $68,800 and sentenced to an undisclosed prison term.
No Religious Freedom
The government is intolerant of religious diversity. Restrictions on religious freedom apply to Saudis and foreigners alike, and any demonstration of religious affiliation or sentiment is forbidden except for Muslims who follow the austere Wahhabi interpretation of the Hanbali school of Sunni Islam, a doctrine promulgated in the mid-18th century. The kingdom's Shi'a Muslim minority suffers particularly acute discrimination in matters relating to their religion and culture. This in turn has perpetuated discrimination in other areas such as public-sector employment, education, and lack of access to positions in the judiciary, the security forces, and the military officers corps. Wahhabi clerics have historically viewed certain Shi'a religious rituals as polytheistic and thus heretical, and Shi'a public religious practice is tightly restricted, particularly the mourning celebration of Ashura. The state restricts the private construction of Shi'a mosques and traditional religious community centers (husayniyyat). Shi'a religious seminaries are not permitted, and Shi'a religious scholars have been arrested, tried secretly, and sentenced to long prison terms.
In April 2000, Ismaili Shi'a clashed with Saudi security forces in the southwestern province of Najran. According to some reports, the violence was precipitated by the arrest of an Ismaili cleric from Yemen whom authorities alleged was practicing "sorcery," while other accounts said protesters took to the streets after religious police raided an Ismaili mosque, confiscated its books, and closed the facility. Scores of Ismailis were reportedly arrested in the aftermath of the disturbances and some continue to be detained. In a statement publicized in the international media on December 9, 2001, Ismaili elders from Najran called on the Saudi government to release ninety-three imprisoned Ismailis, including seventeen who they said faced the death penalty ``for opposing the condition of degradation, repression and humiliation that is practiced against them and their tribesmen by Saudi authorities because of their faith.''
Public worship by non-Muslims is banned in the kingdom and places of worship other than mosques are not permitted. The government maintains that non-Muslims are free to worship privately but authorities have arrested participants in private religious services deemed too large. Foreigners suspected of proselytizing Muslims have also been arrested, sentenced to prison terms, and deported.
----- Essentially it is not hard to see why these individuals resort to cutting off other human beings heads off, Saudi law itself supports the mentality, along with its radical Islamic teachings.
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