Anatoly Glazunov (Blockade Survivor) from the book “Sexy Freaks in Russia.”

Shooting, noose cutting off eggs (continued)

Pedophiles are beheaded in Saudi Arabia

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Coat of arms of Saudi Arabia

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

The country's Constitution and Criminal Code are based on Sharia norms and the tenets of Wahhabism. Crimes that carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia include: premeditated murder,homosexuality,armed robbery,adultery,rape,religious apostasy, smuggling, trade, possession and use of drugs and the organization of groups opposing the authorities. There are no political parties in Saudi Arabia. Thus, sexual crimes fall into the category of very serious crimes. Previously, criminals were stoned to death, but now more often their heads are cut off with a sword. In mild cases, pederasts are sentenced to severe flogging (up to 7 thousand lashes).

In Saudi Arabia, there is a position of state executioner. The position of chief executioner of Mecca is hereditary in the al-Bishi family, and each heir is confirmed to the position by the king himself. Currently, the main executioner is Abdullah ibn Said al-Bishi. Executions in Mecca are carried out in the square in front of the Abdel-Aziz Gate, previously they were carried out in front of the Al-Haram mosque.
In 2002, 47 people were executed (45 men, 2 women), in 2003 - 53 (52 men, 1 woman), in 2004 - 36 (35 men, 1 woman), in 2005 - 90 (88 men, 2 women), in 2006 - 39 people (35 men, 4 women). ...

EXECUTION PROCESS
“The execution process itself in Saudi Arabia is a whole ceremony, the traditions of which have been preserved and expanded over hundreds of years.
All executions take place after midday prayers in the central square. The person condemned to death is brought to the place blindfolded. Law enforcement forces clear the area of ​​cars and passers-by, after which a piece of blue cloth or plastic is spread on the ground.
The muttawa officer (muttawa is the moral police) leads the condemned person to the center of this matter, the condemned person kneels facing Mecca. If the execution takes place in Mecca, face the Kaaba. The police read out the sentence and give the order to carry it out.
The executioner receives the sword from the hands of the police officer, approaches the condemned man from behind, and makes several swings of the sword in the air before cutting off the head. To quickly stop the gushing bleeding, a medic is always present at the execution. The headless body is buried without a coffin or gravestone on the same day.
Until the early 90s, only men were executed in Saudi Arabia, but by the beginning of 2007, 40 women had been executed.
There are entire dynasties of executioners in the country, who, like the al-Bishi family, pass on their work from generation to generation. The death penalty also affected the culture of the Arabs. For example, the popular folk war dance of al-Arda is largely derived from the movements of the executioner.”Funeral portal. Middle East and Asia. http://www.funeralportal.ru/article.php?ObjectId=915 ...

Of course, the pernicious influence from the USA and Western Europe still exists. The Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia stated on November 12, 2003 that there are more than 6,700 registered HIV-positive residents in the Kingdom. Among them, only 1,509 are citizens of the country. That is, the carriers of the virus are mainly foreigners leading a sadomitic lifestyle. The first case of HIV was reported in Saudi Arabia in 1984. Today, the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia already counts 6,787 HIV-positive people.

In his statement, the head of the country's Epidemiological Control noted that in 95% of cases, HIV infection "becomes a consequence of illicit sexual relations." By “prohibited relationships,” the organization’s representative means “sexual contacts outside marriage, homosexuality and pedophilia.”
http://www.aids.ru/news/2003/11/12-2202.htm

Photo: Reuters Jamaica lifts moratorium on executions

Opponents of reinstating the death penalty point to the failureAccording to opinion polls, the majority of Jamaica's 2.7 million residents support the return of the death penalty. 35 deputies spoke in support of the death penalty. 15 voted against, 10 abstained. Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, under public pressure due to rising crime, also supported the introduction of the death penalty.
Since 1988, Jamaica has had a moratorium on the death penalty, but the Labor Party, which came to power a year ago, insisted on reinstating capital punishment.
According to sociological surveys, the majority of the 2.7 million inhabitants Jamaicans support the return of the death penalty.

On January 2, Saudi Arabia executed 47 people at once on charges of promoting extremist ideology, terrorist activities, and participation in conspiracies, including a Shiite preacher. Nimr al-Nimr. This caused a wave of indignation around the world and, above all, in Shiite Iran, where protesters broke into the Saudi embassy building and tried to start a fire there. As a result, this led to a severance of diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran.

Almost simultaneously, the blood of those executed was shed on the territory controlled by the Islamic State 1, banned in Russia (IS 1, ISIS 1, the Arabic version of the name is Daesh). His militants published a video in which they killed five British citizens accused of espionage.

These two incidents are a reason to once again think about the fundamental kinship of two Sharia entities, Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State, one of which enjoys public patronage from the collective West.

Scenes from the Middle Ages

A typical execution scene in Saudi Arabia looks like this. In front of us are many people in white robes and red turbans-gutras. The executioner raises a sharpened saber and with a slight movement chops off the condemned man's head. The head falls on the asphalt, the executioner moves away a few steps so as not to be splashed with gushing blood. After this we see cars passing by. According to Sharia law, the execution must be public and devout Muslims must observe it so that the crimes are not repeated in the future. But nowadays there are few people who want to watch the execution, so the executioners simply block the busy intersection. Drivers of stopped cars are forced to watch the execution. Once the execution is over, a fire truck quickly clears the intersection and traffic is reopened. This is Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Sharia law has been in effect in this land for hundreds of years.

Here are the impressions of a similar spectacle from a Time newspaper photographer: “When the execution began, the rebels grabbed him by the throat. He began to resist. Three or four rebels pinned him to the ground. The man tried to protect his throat with his hands, which were still tied. He struggled, but the rebels were stronger and they cut his throat. They raised his severed head into the air. People around began to wave their weapons and cheer. Everyone was happy that the execution took place. This scene was like something out of the Middle Ages, something you usually read about in history books. The war in Syria has reached the point where a person can be mercilessly killed in front of hundreds of people who enjoy the spectacle.” This is already the city of Kefergan, a territory controlled by the Islamic State.

Here's another execution. Here, apparently, cutting off the head is not enough. The Sri Lankans convicted of murder were first beheaded and then their bodies were crucified on crosses. Their corpses will be displayed for public desecration - so that others will be embarrassed. Are they really radicals from IS again? No, this is the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

How to eat a woman

In the Saudi Kingdom, school textbooks were even printed to teach teenagers about the rules of Sharia law. For example, they say that Jews and homosexuals should be put to death. In general, an old idea. The textbook also illustrates in detail exactly how to cut off the legs and arms of criminals in case it is suddenly needed.

And it was necessary! A 50-year-old Indian woman who worked as a maid in Saudi Arabia complained of ill-treatment and delayed wages. After the maid tried to escape, her employer tied her to the balcony of her own sari and cut off her right hand. The woman was taken to a Riyadh hospital by neighbors. Representatives of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the incident “a terrible and condemnable incident.” Despite this, the Saudis have not yet been punished.

A woman in Saudi Arabia is generally a creature without rights. For example, in 2014, the country's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ali allowed cannibalism. Aziz Ali stated literally the following: “If a man is mortally hungry and does not find food at home, he can cut off a fragment of his wife’s body and eat it. A woman should approach this decision with devotion and humility, since she is one with her husband.”

The militants of the Islamic State also decided to implement the advice of Saudi textbooks. In the Iraqi city of Mosul they captured, a man accused of homosexuality was thrown from the roof of a house. Dozens of people came to watch the execution, including children. One of the terrorists announced into the microphone that the man had been sentenced to death. People crowded around his crushed body, although the sight was not for the faint of heart.

A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye

However, IS practices even more brutal methods of killing. Recently, a video of the execution of a 19-year-old Syrian army soldier appeared on the Internet. The fighter was a tanker. In the video, he walks towards a terrorist tank and falls under its tracks. The car runs over the young fighter, leaving him with only crushed bones and a flattened brain.

Here's another application of the ancient principle of talion (where punishment reproduces the harm caused): a captured Jordanian pilot stands in an iron cage. He is wearing bright orange clothes doused with a flammable mixture. A militant in light camouflage sets fire to a path of gasoline with a torch; the fire engulfs the entire cage and the executed man.

But in the Saudi kingdom there are “milder” punishments. Blogger Raifa Badawi was accused of insulting Islam. Badawi discussed religious issues on his blog and criticized the current government. For this, the Sharia state sentenced him to a thousand lashes, a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals and ten years in prison. Probably, out of “philanthropy,” the lashes will be applied gradually: fifty lashes every week.

The death penalty in Saudi Arabia extends to foreigners: on May 6, 2015, five people from East Africa were executed there. They were accused of killing an Indian security guard and stealing his money. The Africans were beheaded, after which their corpses were hung from a helicopter. According to authorities, this should deter others from committing similar crimes.

Crushed hopes

According to Western human rights activists, since January 1985, more than 2.2 thousand people have been executed in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, about half of them are foreigners.

Until the 90s of the last century, women in the kingdom were shot. However, then the authorities decided that... representatives of the fairer sex should also have their heads cut off. To determine religious affiliation, a Saudi visa contains a column about the religion of the foreigner. The country has a religious police (muttawa). Soldiers of the Sharia Guard constantly patrol the streets and public institutions of Saudi cities in order to suppress attempts to violate the canons of Islam. If a violation is detected, the perpetrator is punished - from a fine to beheading.

Amnesty International's report on the death penalty noted that "there was some hope for human rights reform when King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud took the throne at the beginning of 2014, but now they are completely crushed.”

The death penalty is protected at the state level in Saudi Arabia. President of the Saudi Human Rights Commission Bandar Al Aiban said the kingdom cannot neglect the rights of victims of criminals. A little earlier, the press secretary of the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Mansur At-Turki explained the difference between the death sentence carried out in the Islamic State and Saudi practice. “IS does not have any legal mechanism in deciding to execute people,” Al-Turki said.

Isn’t Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Representative to the UN in favor of having a “legal mechanism”? Faisal Trat was recently appointed chairman of an advisory group to the UN Human Rights Council?

Who is bad and who is good

Double standards have always been a part of world politics - just recall examples of different interpretations of the right of peoples to self-determination and the principle of territorial integrity. Kosovo Albanians can secede, but Russians in Crimea cannot. Jews are entitled to their own national state, but Kurds are not. Slobodan Milosevic bad, so we bomb Yugoslavia, and Al Saud sells oil, we press his hand. With whom I am friends, I forgive, and with whom I am not friends, I bring democracy to him...

However, you need to know when to stop. It’s time for our Western partners to understand that there is no fundamental difference between the Saudi regime and the terrorist IS - and not only in the area of ​​administration of justice. Without waiting for cases of beheadings of people by Islamist fanatics to become a sustainable practice not only in the Middle East, but also in the center of Western capitals - with grateful spectators, legal interpreters and executioners on the payroll.

1 The organization is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a controversial and mysterious country with practices that are sometimes frightening to Europeans. A Muslim country where only one religion is recognized - Islam with the dominant current of Wahhabism. Where believers pray five times a day and live according to the religious laws of Sharia. Mecca of Muslim pilgrimage with the number of Muslim pilgrims in the hundreds of thousands. Owner of 25% of the planet's oil reserves and GDP per capita is not much less than even that of the United States. And the country, together with China, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, is among the top five in terms of the number of cases of execution of the death penalty. In Saudi Arabia, this institution of punishment still exists today.

Public policy

The country is an absolute theocratic monarchy with an active cabinet of ministers. The Koran is the body of rules or, in Western terms, the constitution. Justice is based on a religious foundation and is represented by the Sharia court. The word “justice” is applied very conditionally, since the country does not have any criminal code, and the judge makes decisions based on Sharia law. There are two types of police in the country: ordinary and religious - the commission for the promotion of virtue or mutawa. It is she who is called upon to monitor compliance with the ethical standards of the Koran and the implementation of all prohibitions.

Features of Saudi justice

According to Sharia law, three types of punishment are applied:

Procedural features

To be charged in a Sharia court, a confession and an oath are sufficient. There are no restrictions for mentally ill people and those under the age of majority. There is no difference between citizens of the kingdom and foreigners. A lawyer is an unnecessary and unaffordable luxury, even when it comes to execution in Saudi Arabia. Recently, there are no differences in punishment based on gender.

Saudi Arabia: lashings

It is this type of punishment that most often ends up in the news columns of Western media. This type of execution is no more common in Saudi Arabia than in all Muslim countries. Although let's not lie - here they hit much more often and harder. A record number of lashes - four thousand - were administered in 1990. Egyptian Muhammad Ali al-Sayyid received such a sentence for robbery. The Sharia judge declared this punishment to be a mercy, because initially they wanted to cut off the hand of the convicted person.

The merciful Themis of Sharia divides the number of lashes and extends the punishment over a long period. Few people can withstand a hundred lashes, so the victim is allowed a period of rehabilitation, and then the execution resumes.

Such executions in Saudi Arabia are public and are carried out in front of a crowd of citizens.

Decapitation and other horrors

A terrible public punishment for a Western person is cutting off the head followed by crucifixion for educational purposes. This is an almost ceremonial murder that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. Executions take place in the main square after lunchtime prayers. The cutting off of the head is carried out by the executioner - there is such a position in the kingdom, it is inherited in the al-Bishi family. The presence of a doctor is required. Horrible!

Prohibition of alcohol - how they are executed in Saudi Arabia

The consumption, production and storage of alcohol is strictly prohibited by Sharia law. Punishment is given in the form of lashes. The case of the Briton Carl Andy is indicative. A seventy-three-year-old man was found with a bottle of homemade wine. Despite the fact that Carl suffered from asthma and cancer, he spent almost a year in prison awaiting 350 strokes. The pinnacle of diplomacy can be called the efforts of embassy workers who, under the threat of deterioration in relations, were able to take the sick Briton home.

But what is excusable to the allies of the Wahhabi state is completely unforgivable to everyone else and is subject to severe punishment in Saudi Arabia. Thus, a resident of the Philippines, Faustino Salazaro, received four months in prison and 75 lashes for just buying a couple of packages of chocolate with liquor inside at Duty Free Bahrain.

Debauchery and adultery

Preventing these acts contrary to the Koran is an important component of Sharia justice. Moreover, the actions are interpreted in multiple meanings and very broadly. An illustration can be found in an incident that occurred in 2006 and was covered by the Western press as the “Qatif rape.” Seven men kidnapped the couple while they were in the car and sexually assaulted them both. The Sharia judge determined the punishment for the rapists in the form of several hundred lashes and long prison terms. But the victims also suffered because they were accused of debauchery, because these people were not spouses. They were also sentenced to six months' imprisonment and 200 lashes. The Western world erupted in outraged protests. Under pressure from the world community, King Abdullah nevertheless overturned the judge’s decision regarding the victim, although he called the judge’s actions fair for such a Muslim country as Saudi Arabia. Executions of people for such crimes should be severe, he emphasized in an interview with Western journalists.

You can lose your head for having a same-sex relationship

Homosexuality is brutally persecuted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Executions for this crime can be the most brutal. Yet this phenomenon is quite common. The education system is based on gender segregation; minimizing contact between men and women before marriage leads to the development of homosexual manifestations among young people.

In addition, there is a kind of unspoken agreement between LGBT communities and the country's authorities. Homosexuals openly revere the norms of Wahhabism, and the authorities do not notice the personal life of this category of subjects. Excesses often happen, but more often the judges' sentences are quite lenient.

The most brutal executions in Saudi Arabia are for witchcraft

For vigilant neighbors and colleagues, the country has created a hotline to report citizens who practice magic or witchcraft. The court's verdict is clear - cutting off (decapitation) the head and crucifixion of the body as an edification to all living and an example of how apostates are executed in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the presence of the Koran in the toilet may be sufficient for prosecution, as happened in 2007 with the Egyptian pharmacist Mustafa Ibrahim.

Foreign guest workers often suffer from anti-magic workers. Two Asian maids in 2013 “got off lightly” with 1,000 lashes and ten years behind bars for inflicting magical damage on their employer, whose mere statement was enough to execute the women.

In Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International, 154 people were executed in 2016. This figure is not much less than in 2015 (158). The brutal execution in Saudi Arabia, photos of examples of which filled the pages of the media, cannot leave Western viewers indifferent. Asking the question of how this can happen in a prosperous state of the 21st century, we find the answer in the Koran - a book written in 600 AD. According to this ancient source, all sins are criminal offenses and carry such severe penalties. And that this does not correspond to the norms of international law and modern ideas about humanism - as they say, “don’t go for a walk in Africa, kids.” Of course, if you are not a Wahhabi Muslim.

The other day, one of the most massive series of executions in the country's history took place in Saudi Arabia - the authorities carried out the death sentence against 37 people, the majority of them were Shiites. One of them was crucified; this punishment is used in the country only for the most serious crimes, writes TJournal.

Those executed included those accused of killing security officials with explosives, forming terrorist cells and spreading terrorist ideology. But among them there were also those who were executed for crimes allegedly committed before adulthood, which is prohibited by international laws.

Western media reported on several such executions. For example, Abdulkareem al-Khawaj was only 16 years old when he spread information via WhatsApp about the protests. He was publicly beheaded when he was already 21 years old. He was detained at the airport, from where he was supposed to fly to his family.

Mujtaba al-Sweikat was 17 years old when he took part in the protests. He was arrested in 2012, also at the airport - he was supposed to fly to attend university in the USA.

Abdulkarim al-Khawaj and Mujtab al-Sweikat

Munir al-Adam was 23 years old when he was detained in 2012 at a checkpoint. From the age of five he was deaf in one ear, and after torture he became completely deaf.

A Saudi statement said all those executed confessed to their guilt. CNN, citing obtained court documents, reported that some of those executed argued at trial that they were innocent, and their confessions were written by investigators and only signed by them under torture. In some cases, the suspects were not even required to sign - a fingerprint was placed on the paper with the “testimony”.

According to Amnesty International, 11 of those executed were accused of spying for Iran, and another 14 were accused of participating in protests in the eastern part of the country between 2011 and 2012. According to the British human rights organization Reprieve, confessions were extracted from all suspects under torture, on the basis of which they were sentenced to death. Executions were carried out in Riyadh, Mecca and Medina.

Other suspects in similar crimes are still awaiting the death penalty. For example, Ali al-Nimr was sentenced to crucifixion for participating in protests and teaching first aid to protesters, and two more young men were sentenced to death for crimes they committed before the age of 18.

Sentenced to death Ali al-Nimr (top), Abdullah al-Zaher (left) and Dawud al-Marhun

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi called the execution of 37 Saudi citizens a manifestation of pre-Islamic era “ignorance.” He called on the international community to oppose such actions by Riyadh.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia executed 46 people at once, including Shiite leader Nimr al-Nimr.

How will your first day in Saudi Arabia start?

Friday, noon. A crowd surrounded the center of old Riyadh. The great al-Juma prayer has just ended in the main mosque of the city. A sharp sword, a little more than a meter long, with an Arabic-curved end, forged from steel shining in the sun, is now raised high above the head of a kneeling figure. From under the white clothes that hide the entire body, only the bare neck peeks out. Sixty or more people stood waiting, standing around the perimeter of a wide quadrangular square, guarded by a huddled row of eight soldiers dressed in bronze-colored uniforms.

The executioner, who has raised his sword, takes on menacing proportions and seems somehow mystically ghostly, like a vision, in his long white dishdasha shirt and red checkered keffiyeh bandage. He is ready to make a decisive swing, but suddenly retreats back. He takes a couple of steps away from the chopping block. Quietly conferring with two police officers and one other person - the only person who can stop him: the victim of a criminal sentenced to death.

The short meeting is over. The executioner returns to the block. He puts his right leg forward, his left leg wide back, as if doing a stretch. The raised sword gives a second reflection of the sun. A second - and..!

But the executioner just smoothly lowers the sword onto the neck of the condemned man. Gives him the feel of hardened steel. The criminal's body tenses and freezes in anticipation. The sword swings high again, only this time it’s for real. One precise and powerful blow cuts through skin, muscle and bone with a dull, hollow echo. A bloody waterfall breaks out from the severed neck onto the granite square with a characteristic sound, as if wet laundry is being squeezed into a steel basin. The headless body leans forward, tumbles slightly and falls on its right side.

The executioner wipes the sword with a piece of white cloth. The crowd parts as two men in blue overalls emerge from the depths of the low arches surrounding the square, lift the body and place it on a stretcher. One of them picks up the head by the piece of cloth in which it was wrapped. The crimes are read out loud: rape, drug trafficking and demonic possession. The executioner sheaths the sword. A thickly bearded man in a soldier's uniform claps his palms and raises them to the sky.

In five minutes, there will be no one left in the square except the cleaner, hosing down the bloody granite with water.

The death penalty is used in many countries. Public capital punishment is popular in only four places on the planet. Well, public capital punishment using the full range of “technologies”, such as hanging, beheading, stoning, shooting, as well as beheading followed by crucifixion of the body on cranes, is used only in Saudi Arabia. In Iran, they execute 7 times more people per year, but even there they do without beheading. When comparing Saudia and other countries, for some reason this important detail is often forgotten.

Someone writes that recently public executions have stopped being carried out in Saudi Arabia, and the situation is improving. Nothing like this. The wide quadrangular square on which the head of the executed man flew is called Chop-Chop Square by the locals.

Chop-Chop Square is nothing interesting. It's just an empty place in the center of old Riyadh, surrounded by low walls. In one of the adjacent buildings there is the central city mosque. Not far from the square there are court buildings and various ministries. An ideal place for the death penalty.

The architectural complex of the square is completed by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, on the sandy facade of which hangs a poster with the slogan: “My prayer is my happiness.”

On all days except Friday, the square is unremarkable and even boring. Arabs sit at tables in the shade and drink tea, prayers take place in the mosque, and in general it’s very nice to relax under the palm trees in the heat.

On Friday there is a special, long Friday prayer, which is very important for Muslims. Countless crowds of Riyadh residents flock to the nearest mosques from all directions. Everything around the central square is cordoned off by police. Sirens are constantly wailing and dozens of red and blue lights are flashing. It feels like they are not here to protect against a terrorist attack, but as if a terrorist attack has already occurred.

There is no desire to be even close to Chop-Chop Square at this time, let alone even think about going inside. Any non-Muslim is stopped by armed soldiers and carefully searched. Then they let you through.

The author came to watch the death penalty, holding the camera in his bag and turned off - I wouldn’t want to lose it myself for trying to film the beheading. Armed soldiers on the approach to the square checked the bag, looked at each other, said something on the radio and let me through. Then I sat on a bench for half an hour and waited to see what would happen.

A few minutes later the Arabs left, having finished their tea. A police jeep arrived and dropped off the officer on duty a few meters away. Then the jeep drove into sight to the other end of the square, and the soldier remained standing and pretending that he didn’t care about me. The author sat on a bench under the palm trees, arms folded, holding the camera turned off in his bag.

Nothing else happened on the square. No death penalty. But as soon as I got up and walked towards the exit, the soldier immediately stopped me. He asked me to open the bag. I took the camera and turned it on. He asked me to look through the photographs showing the streets of Riyadh. Then he snatched the camera from his hands and began to flip through it in the opposite direction, reporting on the radio what he saw in each photo. Several minutes passed like this until he was convinced that I was not renting the area.

I didn't see the death penalty. They really stopped being held in Chop-Chop Square, but only in this square! In order to avoid crowds of onlookers, the Saudi authorities now carry out beheadings not at the central mosque, but in the place where the crime was committed.

It's incredible how crazy the laws are here. First, the killer is arrested and sent to prison. They are holding a trial. Only one thing can save him from the death penalty - ransom. Often the relatives of the killer and the relatives of the victim agree on a ransom among themselves. As a result, murderers are not always executed, and the heads fly with drug dealers, homosexuals and political dissidents, whom either no one cares about or it is more expensive for them to get involved.

The most important thing: after the trial, if it is possible to establish the crime scene, the victim is taken to this place, wherever it is, and the head is cut off there. Even if it’s right in the middle of the street. For example, like this woman who killed and raped a child, screaming to the end that she was not guilty.

Well, nothing else happens in Chop-Chop Square. Not far from the former scaffold, a city museum was opened in a former fort. Workers and businessmen often come here on weekends, and school excursions are held. Almost none of these “tourists” even know that heads were chopped off a hundred meters later.

Old Riyadh

Masmak Fortress is a beautifully executed remake, a reconstruction of an old fort.

The fortress has a restored 19th-century Arabic interior - boring and meaningless, like all of Arabia.

Model of the old city.

Quotes from King Abdul Aziz hang on the wall: “I conquered this country thanks to the will of Allah and the Arab spirit.”

In the courtyard there is a working copy of the will of Allah.

Interesting characters. They were sniffing out something with some cunning spirit.

Streets behind the fortress.

Next to the fort there is also a market, a typical bazaar like in any third world country. The market sells carpets, clothes and gold.

As soon as I took this harmless photo, the police noticed me. He called me to his car and asked for my passport. I considered a business visa for a long time. Realizing that I was of no use, he made a saddened, downright upset face and said in the voice of a kindergarten teacher:

Andrew... Are you... Taking photographs?.. (Like, aren’t you ashamed, you’re a businessman)
- Yes, I’m just Fort Masmak!
- Ah-ah-ah, well, go, inshallah.

⁂

A few kilometers from Riyadh there is another historical place - the ruins of the old city of Ed-Diriya.

Restored ruins, of course.

You can write about them for exactly one reason - it’s surprisingly empty and clumsy, as if you were in a plastic model.

But it must be said that the Arabs restore conscientiously. The doors seem to have been carved by the same master as 200 years ago.

However, it is not necessary to go to the artificial ruins. To tell you a secret, there are plenty of real ruins in the center. I walked around the city for a long time, visiting all the non-tourist places. Hidden behind shabby skyscrapers and a wealthy private sector, Riyadh at its core is made up of dirty, shitty streets lined with shabby low-rise buildings.

This is what is happening a hundred meters from Chop-Chop Square.

This is what the real Riyadh looks like. Just like those museum ruins, only for real. The old houses, built of sand and coral, seemed to be washed away by water - only heaps of clay remained, no frame.

Such streets occupy more than half of the city. Riyadh is full of Pakistani neighborhoods that look even worse.

I walked around the whole city; I decided to take the camera out only in a couple of places. After all the Saudi paranoia and two arrests, who knows whether they would have mistaken me for a spy or just a careless fool.