Saudi Arabia is looking to hire more executioners to carry out public beheadings of drug convicts, murderers and smugglers, or to amputate the hands of thieves. The position has eight vacancies and the announcement has been posted in the country's Ministry of Civil Service, according to a report from the New York Times.
Listed as "religious functionaries," the job requirement provided no specifics as to experience, training and educational background. But as the NY Times report says, some provinces in Saudi Arabia pass the skill and function from father to son.
The job posting also did not provide any salary grade, however, it would most likely fall under the lower end of the pay scale, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Arab nation is one of top five countries that carry out death as its capital punishment, including China, Iran, Iraq and the United States, according to figures from Amnesty International. Though the country has been heavily criticized by human rights group for this, saying that the act is comparable to the killings done by terrorists, officials have remained firm on their stance.
"When we do it in Saudi Arabia, we do it as a decision made by a court. The killing is a decision. I mean it is not based on arbitrary choices, to kill this and not to kill this," said Major General Mansour al-Turki back in February during an interview with NBC News.
The increase in death penalty cases, on the other hand, may be attributed to the Saudi courts appointing more judges who have been working trimming down the backlogs in court, according to The Guardian.
Meanwhile, the job application for executioner in Saudi Arabia is still open and a downloadable pdf form is available on the ministry's website as of press time.
