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California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

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California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state's most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they've been excluded from the reform - and whether they'll be safe in new prisons. Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States' most infamous death chambers.

Three Yemenis beheaded in Saudi, 83 executions in 2015

Public beheading in Saudi Arabia (file photo)
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia beheaded three Yemenis for drug trafficking Wednesday, bringing to 83 the number of executions in little more than four months, compared with 87 all of last year.

The condemned men, Eisa Ali Ahmed Hajri, Mohammed Ali Saifi and Majid Gasim al-Ahdal, were convicted of trying to smuggle hashish into the kingdom, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

They were executed in Jazan province which borders Yemen.

The ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for its use of the death penalty despite criticism from human rights watchdogs.

London-based Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia among the world's top three executioners of 2014.

On a visit to Riyadh this month, French President Francois Hollande said capital punishment "should be banned," and his country is campaigning around the world for its abolition.

Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy, homosexuality and armed robbery are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic Shariah law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 13, 2015

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