Lebanon’s state prosecutor on Tuesday ordered an investigation to reveal the source of the posters hung around Beirut’s suburbs showing a caricature of the Saudi king carrying a bloody machete, state news reported.
The ultra-conservative kingdom meanwhile Tuesday announced it had beheaded its fourteenth convict this year.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that prosecutor Hatem Madi launched an investigation into the posters after receiving complaints from Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad Asiri.
Posters hung around Beirut’s Christian suburbs of Fanar and Jal al-Dib depicted Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz as the King of Spades on a mock playing card gripping onto a machete dripping blood. It was an apparent reference to the kingdom’s medieval policy of carrying out executions by the sword.
The posters were discovered Tuesday morning, about one week after Saudi newspaper Al-Watan published caricatures mocking Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai. The cartoons, criticizing Rai’s visit to Syria, angered many in Lebanon’s Christian communities.
The latest incident comes as the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday reported the kingdom had beheaded Abdulkarim Ibrahim Mousa Abkar, a Chadian national convicted of smuggling drugs. It was the fourteenth such execution in Saudi Arabia since the start of the new year.
Those convicted of charges that include murder, rape, drug trafficking, apostasy, sorcery and witchcraft could be brought to the block in Saudi Arabia, which adheres to an extreme form of Islamic law.
Saudi Arabia has one of the highest state execution rates in the world. The kingdom put down at least 82 people in 2011 according to Amnesty International. Seventy-six people were beheaded in the kingdom last year according to an AFP tally, while Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69.
The kingdom has brushed off international calls for the kingdom to abolish the policy of beheading.
What do you think of the prank? Do you think using pop art like this is a good form of protest? Comment below.
