In 2009, Canadian journalist Adam St. Patrick, who witnessed a public execution in the square, reported: "[T]he process is less overtly public now than it once was. Corpses aren’t hung for display in the square as often, and beheadings drew much bigger crowds when they were a regular event, held on Fridays after noon prayers. No formal event or fanfare begins or ends them now, and nothing indicates awareness or concern about how alien this is to outsiders." In 2015, it was reported that filming the public beheadings in Saudi Arabia had been forbidden. There was speculation that this was due to the international repercussion of public beheadings then carried out by the
Islamic State, and the alleged "irony" of the fact that Saudi Arabia, being a key ally in the US-led coalition against the group, carried out the same sort of "brutal" punishments as the militant group. ==Gallery==