Footage of Pakistani men being decapitated in Saudi Arabia for raping a girl? Find out the truth…

Content Warning: The article contains material with graphic depictions of violence, which some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Numerous posts are being shared and circulated on social media claiming to be a video of seven people being brutally executed in Saudi Arabia, purportedly as punishment for the rape of a 16-year-old girl. Let’s examine the claim in detail.

Social Media Posts

A graphic video was posted on social media platforms, showing seven people dressed in orange clothes with their faces covered, being beheaded by people dressed in black, with swords. Referring to that, it was stated that it was a video from Saudi Arabia and was a punishment for raping a 16-year-old girl. 

This was stated along with the video.

“Seven Pakistani men raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia. They were all arrested the next day and were produced before the court. The court ordered their beheading and released the video for other to watch”. (“සෞදි අරාබියේදී පකිස්ථාන ජාතිකයන් හත් දෙනෙකු විසින් 16 හැවිරිදි දැරියක් දූෂණය කර ඝාතනය කර ඇත.පසුදා ඔවුන් සියල්ලන්ම අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලදි. අධිකරණය ඔවුන්ගේ හිස් ගසා දැමීමට නියෝග කළ අතර අනෙක් අයට නැරඹීම සඳහා වීඩියෝව නිකුත් කර ඇත.”)

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The comments on this video showed that many people believe this is a punishment given to those convicted of rape.

The same video was also circulated on WhatsApp with the same caption above.

We conducted a fact check on this matter, as many people have questioned whether the video depicts an actual incident or a digitally created one.

Fact Check

At the beginning of our investigation, we first checked the video’s images using the Reverse Image Search function.

Accordingly, we were able to find a news article published on a website called 24, with photographs of the frames shown in this video. 

The news was published on September 20, 2016, and reported that ISIS brutally murdered 16 Iraqis accused of spying for Kurdish Peshmerga. The news further stated that ISIS members took turns killing 16 young Iraqi men, some of whom were shot, and others were hacked to death with a sharp sword.

It also reported that the killed youths had admitted that they were part of an anti-ISIS battalion called “Umm al-Rabin” operating secretly in Mosul. 

The published news also included photographs related to this incident.

Upon further investigation, we also found another media report published in 2016 regarding this matter. Images similar to those in the circulated video were also included in the video.

The Peshmerga (military) forces are the military soldiers of the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq and operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.

There have been reports of ISIS killing and beheading Peshmerga soldiers over the years.

However, another media report had been published on the same incident, and it has described the incident more brutally.

In fact, in its latest release, “And If You Return, We Return 3”, it is stated that ISIS members took turns killing 16 young men and that camera lenses were attached to the necks of the victims. It is described that the blood flowing from their necks was filmed in a way that made it appear as if water was flowing from a fountain.

Furthermore, it is stated how brutal the killings were, first by placing eight people in an iron cage and taking them out one by one. Then, they executed them and put their heads on top of their bodies in front of a child who appeared to be European.

Here is a report issued by Al-Alam, an Iranian state media outlet, regarding the same incident.

Here and here are some of the fact-check stories linking this incident to rape and claiming that Pakistani nationals were killed brutally in Saudi Arabia in previous years.

Punishment for rape in Saudi Arabia

Rape in Saudi Arabia is regulated through Saudi Arabia’s interpretation of Sharia law, under which a person convicted of the crime of rape can be sentenced to various punishments, ranging from flogging to the death penalty.

We also examined news reports about Pakistani nationals being beheaded on charges of raping a woman, and we got to see some similar incidents before. This is a news report from 2010 about such an incident.

Furthermore, in 2018, there was a news report of four Pakistani men being sentenced to death for entering a woman’s home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and raping and strangling her.

Conclusion

Our investigation shows that the video posted purporting to be a punishment given to a group of Pakistanis who raped a 16-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia does not relate to such an incident. 

The video shows the beheading of a group of young men who were caught spying by ISIS nine years ago, in 2016.