Shit is tough for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You gotta sell the oil, keep it chummy with the United States, and also prove you deserve to run things around the holiest sites for all Muslims. Which means you gotta be holier than thou. Which means you gotta get more sword-happy head-cutter-offers.

Via The Guardian, a new jobs program in the Middle East:

Saudi Arabia is advertising for eight new executioners, recruiting extra staff to carry out an increasing number of death sentences, usually done by public beheading.

No special qualifications are needed for the jobs whose main role is “executing a judgment of death” but also involve performing amputations on those convicted of lesser offences, the advert, posted on the civil service jobs portal, said.

Human rights groups say the Saudis—No. 3 in the global execution sweepstakes, smack dab between champion killers China and Iran and up-and-coming challengers Iraq and America—have already sword-slain nearly as many prisoners in 2015 as they did last year, when somewhere around 90 were decapitated for crimes ranging from murder and drug-dealing to apostasy, sodomy, and adultery.

The Guardian reports that the vacant executioners’ jobs “were classified as ‘religious functionaries’ and that they would be at the lower end of the civil service pay scale.” But on the plus side, one of the earth’s most draconian regimes offers its civil servants 36 vacation days, six months’ paid sick leave every four years, and a minimum 60 days’ paid parental leave.

Relatedly, here’s a collection of Associated Press photos showing Saudi leaders sharing their quality swords with gleeful U.S., European, and Russian heads of state:

[Photo credits: AP Images]

Contact the author at adam@gawker.com.
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