Saudi Arabia's official executioner, a skilled swordsman who has dispatched more than 600 convicted criminals, says beheading is less difficult than chopping off the hands of thieves.
"Frankly, it's easier to chop off a head since this act means the end of the story for the criminal," Saeed Al-Sayyaf, 60, said in an interview with the Saudi newspaper Al-Medina."Chopping off a hand needs more courage, since you are cutting off a part of the body of an individual who is to survive," he said.
The act requires "very skilled attention to ensure that the sword does not slip or cut in the wrong place," Saeed said in the interview, which was republished by a Dubai-based English-language newspaper, the Khaleej Times.
His name has an odd ring in Arabic: Saeed means "happy" and Al-Sayyaf "swordsman executioner." He changed his second name when he was appointed to the job more than 35 years ago.
The executioner says he doesn't suffer remorse for his victims since he is carrying out Islamic justice as required by the Koran, the holy book of Islam. The Koran decrees that convicted murderers be beheaded and thieves lose a hand. Saudi authorities last year ruled that drug smugglers also should be executed.
Al-Sayyaf started out as a farmer, but joined the army at age 20. He said that "watching executioners" as they beheaded criminals publicly after Friday prayer sessions became his favorite hobby.
He later applied for the job of "sayyaf" which carried a salary of $36 a month, plus an additional $133 "for each head."
Al-Sayyaf said he carried out his first execution at 23, beheading three criminals and "earning 1,500 riyals" ($399).
"I always look forward to the opportunity to chop off more heads so that I can earn more money," he said.
"Over a period of time it became a very easy sort of job . . . In fact I felt it was easy to do an execution," he added. "I have chopped off the heads of more than 600 criminals and cut off 60 hands of thieves."
Al-Sayyaf said he first slices off the upper part of a convict's shirt with his sword to expose the kneeling victim's neck. Then he uses a single swift stroke that sends blood gushing and the head rolling on the sand.
But he uses a pistol for executing women in order to avoid having to cut off their clothing and reveal naked flesh.
Al-Sayyaf admits that he often has sleepless nights before executions "worrying that I might fail."
But once the beheading is over, he feels "delighted and satisfied" for having put an end to "what's against the law of God."
"I was very happy when I executed a drug trafficker," Al-Medina quoted him as saying.
These days, those awaiting execution have their eyes covered by a black blindfold.
That was introduced after "I chopped off the head of one convict and it fell directly in front of the second, who suddenly collapsed and fell to the ground and died of a heart attack."
His most memorable executions took place in 1979, when he beheaded 12 convicts in one session. They were all members of a group of Moslem fundamentalists who seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest shrine, in an attempt to topple the government.
Al-Sayyaf has married 24 times and fathered 25 sons and daughters. Under Islam, a man is permitted four wives.
He says his grim job doesn't affect his social life.