You can’t make this stuff up.

Saudi Justice, Harsh but Able to Spare the Sword – NYT

The murder that almost cost Bandar al-Yehiya his head started with an old debt to a close friend.

Struggling to raise the cash, Mr. Yehiya invited the friend to his home and offered him a rifle as payment. But when the friend refused, Mr. Yehiya got angry and shot him in the chest, leaving him dead on the living room couch, the slain man’s brother, Faleh al-Homeidani, said.

Mr. Yehiya confessed to the murder, so under Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, he would face the punishment that has made Saudi justice notorious around the world: beheading in the public square.

But the execution never happened.

Saudi Arabia’s justice system is regularly condemned by human rights groups for violating due process, lacking transparency and applying punishments like beheading and amputation. Criticism has grown as Saudi cases have made news abroad: a liberal blogger caned for criticizing religious leaders; activists jailed for advocating reform; a woman held without charge for more than two months for driving a car.

Such rulings have prompted comparisons to the Islamic State, which regularly beheads its foes and also claims to apply Shariah law.

But Mr. Yehiya was saved because of checks in the Saudi system on the use of harsh punishments. His case wound its way through a yearslong odyssey of law and tradition. Mr. Yehiya reformed in prison, sheikhs and royals appealed for his life, and he was ultimately spared by a daughter of the man he had shot dead.

Mr. Yehiya’s reprieve was the product of a justice system little understood outside the kingdom, one that is based on centuries of Islamic tradition and that prioritizes stability and the strict adherence to Islamic mores over individual rights and freedoms.

“The punishments that are in the Quran — after Allah, the gracious and almighty — are what preserve security in this country,” said Faisal bin Mishaal bin Saud bin Abdulaziz, the prince of Qassim Province, where Mr. Yehiya’s crime took place.

But built into the system as well, he said, are avenues for mercy.

Some crimes and their punishments are clear in the Saudi system, like execution for murder, amputation for grand theft, and lashes for premarital sex or the drinking of alcohol. The Saudi state also has modern laws for offenses like drug trafficking and weapons use, as well as for cybercrime and terrorism, which human rights groups say the government often uses to punish nonviolent dissidents.

A few recent examples of how Saudi Arabia shows “mercy”:

A picture of the woman in the above story being dragged into the street and beheaded by the Saudi.