SAUDI URGED NOT TO EXECUTE MAN OVER 1981 MURDER

Saudi and international rights groups asked Saudi Arabia's authorities to prevent the execution of a man tried twice for the same crime committed 27 years ago. Abdullah Fandi al-Shammari faces execution on December 9 over a killing committed in 1981, the unofficial Saudi group Human Rights First Society said in a statement. The victim died a day after a fight with Shammari in a dispute over camel herds. Shammari was found guilty of manslaughter in 1988 and was sentenced to death in 1992 after the case was reopened by the victim's family, Amnesty International said. After intervention from Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz he was given a brief reprieve on November 15 to allow his family to seek a pardon from the victim's family, according to Saudi custom. "His case was heard and determined in one session; he has no access to the file or to any legal assistance, and was not able to appeal against the sentence before it was ratified by the court of cassation," Amnesty said.