Riyadh, May 19 (IANS): Saudi Arabia’s civil service ministry listed on its website eight new job openings -- for the position of executioner. The job responsibilities will likely include beheadings and amputations - two of the most prominent punishments for crimes in the Saudi kingdom, including for drug smuggling, arms dealing, murder, and rape.

The eight positions, as advertised on the website of the civil service ministry, require no specific skills or educational background for “carrying out the death sentence according to Islamic Shariah after it was ordered by a legal ruling”.

But given the grisly nature of the job, a scarcity of qualified swordsmen in some regions of the country and a rise in the frequency of executions, candidates might face a heavy workload.

Saudi Arabia’s justice system doles out death sentence, usually by beheading in a public square, for drug dealing, arms smuggling, and murder and other violent crimes.

Although the law also mandates that thieves in some cases have their hands cut off, that punishment was rarely carried out because judges consider it distasteful, according to Saudi lawyers.