A verdict to behead three Pakistani money launderers was confirmed by the Makkah High Court Wednesday. The men are to receive the punishment for killing another Pakistani man and two Indonesian women, one of whom was pregnant through adultery. The case inflamed public opinion at the time as the gruesome details were recounted before the court. The gang killed the fetus of the pregnant woman in a cruel manner, which indicated their deeply criminal nature. This was all the more heinous as the murders took place in Ramadan in the Central Area near the Grand Mosque in Makkah several years ago. The gang had initially been engaged in laundering dirty money via the remittance of millions of riyals to Pakistan. However, the men turned against another gang member and decided to kill him out of jealousy. They lured him to a house in the Central Area and served him a drink laced with a sedative. When he fell asleep, they strangled him and chopped his body into pieces Al-Madina reported Wednesday. However, while they were engaged in carving up the body, an Indonesian woman who was having an indecent relationship with the victim, entered the house and witnessed the gory scene. The gang panicked and killed the woman to stop her from informing the authorities. They put her body in a garbage bag and buried her in Arafat holy site. However that was not the end of their problems, because several days later, another Indonesian woman phoned them to ask for her friend who had been having an illicit relationship with the gangsters. After being bombarded with questions, the gangsters finally said that the woman's friend was with them. When the second woman, who was pregnant by one of the gang members, came to the residence, they strangled her and cut the fetus out of her womb. They then put her body and that of the fetus in a plastic bag and buried them in the run-down house. The gangsters then abandoned the house where they committed the gruesome crimes. However, the bodies were discovered when the owner who came to renovate the house noticed a foul odor. It was then that he discovered the bodies of the woman and her fetus. An investigation was launched immediately, which led to the gang members being arrested. The Pakistanis admitted everything and their confessions were attested before a Shariah court. Al-Madina newspaper learnt that the gangsters offered large amounts of blood money to the families of the victims to drop the case, but the five-man judicial circuit concluded that the case is of Hirabah (armed robbery), which cannot be dropped. Another deciding factor against the men was that the crimes took place in the last 10 days of Ramadan in Makkah. It is only now, after several years, that the death sentence has been issued.
