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SAUDI EXECUTED FOR STARTING DEADLY JAIL FIRE
November 7, 2008: a Saudi Arabian man was beheaded by the sword after he was convicted of deliberately starting a prison fire which killed 69 inmates in September 2003, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
Saad bin Fhaid al-Sebaiei was executed in Riyadh after he was found guilty of starting the blaze at Al-Hair jail on the southern edge of the Saudi capital, where he was held at the time.
In April 2004, the head of Riyadh prisons was fired and several other officials were suspended for dereliction of duty in the deadly incident in Saudi Arabia's largest prison, which housed about 3,500 inmates. The interior ministry said at the time that an inquiry committee established that the fire was started deliberately by Sebaiei, who set a blanket ablaze as prisoners were assembling for noon prayers. (Sources: Agence France Presse, 08/11/2008)
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