Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH —Three Saudi nationals were executed on Monday for robbing and killing five Indian nationals in the Eastern Province city of Qatif, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported quoting an Interior Ministry statement.

Jassem Bin Jassim Bin Hassan Al-Mutawa was the prime accused in the killing of Fadvila Selim, Shajhan Abu Bakr, Akbar Hussein Bashir, Sheikh Daoud and Lasir Amir Asafa Tam. He was aided by two other Saudi nationals — Ammar Bin Yusri Bin Ali Al-Dahim and Murtada Bin Hashim Bin Mohammed Al-Musawi, SPA said.

The death sentence was carried out in Qatif governorate.

The case goes back to 2010 when the bodies of five Indian workers were buried in an isolated farm in Safwa near Qatif.

The skeletons were unearthed four years later in 2014 when Ali Habi, a Saudi national, rented the farm and was working on an irrigating system.

He initially thought they belonged to an animal, but when he found clothes next to them, he alerted the police. Initially, two bodies were discovered, but soon afterward, three more skeletons were unearthed.

The decomposed bodies were found with ropes around their arms and legs and their mouths filled with cotton and covered with duct tape. After a massive investigation, police were able to identify the victims and hunt down the killers. A gold ring and iqama cards helped identify some of the victims and several suspects. The men lured the victims at night to the farm where they drugged them by mixing pills with their drinks.

The victims were then beaten, shackled and strangled to death. They were robbed of their belongings including money and mobile phones, the report said.

The accused then disposed of the bodies by burying them in a hole in the farm. The Saudi men were also charged with drinking liquor and smoking cannabis.

Following the investigation, police referred the suspects to the criminal court.

Since the actions of the defendants were “prohibited and displayed a form of barbarism and corruption”, the men were sentenced to death, the report said.