You could join the ranks of executioner Ahmad Rizkallah (Picture: Rex Shutterstock)

Squeamish people need not apply.

If you’re up for travel and don’t mind a bit of blood then we may have found the job for you.

Saudi Arabia is looking for eight new executioners after a rise in the number of death sentences.

The job advert on the civil service jobs site says there’s no need for special qualifications and successful applicants would be ‘executing a judgement of death’.


As a little bonus you’ll be able to perform amputations on those convicted of lesser offences. Sadly, however, you will be on the lower end of the pay scale.



Saudi Arabia is ranked number three in the world after China and Iran in terms of putting people to death. Slightly ahead of Iraq and the United States.

The usual method of execution is public beheading.

And if proof was needed that the industry of beheading is expanding, just look at the figures. Last year 88 people in were executed according to Saudi Arabia (Amnesty International says 90). There have been 85 already this year.

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Wanted: Eight new executioners (Picture: Reuters)

Most were executed for murder, but 38 had committed drugs offences, HRW said. About half were Saudi and the others were from Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, India, Indonesia, Burma, Chad, Eritrea the Philippines and Sudan.

Saudi authorities have not said why the number of executions has increased so rapidly, but diplomats have speculated it may be because more judges have been appointed, allowing a backlog of appeal cases to be heard.

Political analysts say it might also reflect a tough response by the judiciary to regional turbulence.

A downloadable PDF application form for the executioner jobs, available on the website, said the jobs were classified as ‘religious functionaries’ and that they would be at the lower end of the civil service pay scale.