Muhammad Masawee, the father of Mazin, the Saudi man who was reportedly executed in Iraq, is completely devastated by the tragic news which his son’s lawyer broke to him.

“The lawyer told us Tuesday morning that Mazin had been executed. The news was confirmed by the brother of Mazin’s wife. I feel completely devastated and grief-stricken,” said Masawee.

He demanded to get back his son’s body for burial in his homeland.

Mazin’s father, who for a long time did not know that his son went to Iraq, said Mazin did not show any signs of extremism.

Mazin went to Iraq in 2006, the father said. Before that, he was a third-year student at the School of Economics and Management at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah.

But he showed keen interest in developments in Iraq and was glued to the TV.

Toward the end of 2005, exactly after Eid Al-Fitr holidays, Mazin told his parents that he wanted to go to Madinah and spend some time there. Some 20 days later, one of Mazin’s friends called the family and told them that Mazin traveled to Dammam for a job interview, the father said.

“When I asked the caller why Mazin didn’t call us, he replied that he was asked by Mazin to communicate this news to them.”

A month later, Masawee received a call from Iraq that Mazin had joined a jihadi group there. He immediately informed the Ministry of Interior.

Masawee said Mazin sent letters from Iraq for a while. Then the letters stopped and the parents were told that their son was in prison. But Mazin again started sending letters and even called them from time to time.

He told them that he wanted to return to the Kingdom. He also said that he got married and had two sons. Later Masawee was told that his son was arrested and put in prison because he, together with some other men, blew up an Iraqi police station.

Meanwhile, Dr. Maad Al-Obaidi, supervisor of legal bilateral relations in the Iraqi embassy in Riyadh, denied the news about the execution of a Saudi citizen in Iraq.

“The news doesn’t have a shred of truth in it,” he told Okaz.

The embassy asked the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs if there was any truth in the news, Dr. Al-Obaidi said. The ministry enquired about it from the Iraqi Ministry of Justice, which is in charge of prisoners’ affairs. The latter stated that no Saudi prisoner was executed in Iraq.

Dr. Al-Obaidi said that there are 69 Saudis in Iraqi prisons, all of them are involved in terrorism cases. Some of them were sentenced based on Article 4 of Anti-Terrorism Law of 2005.

The Article stipulates that anyone who commits or participates in committing terrorist acts set out in Articles 2 & 3 of this law shall be executed and this penalty shall also be imposed on anyone who instigates, plans and finances terrorism and helps terrorists commit their crimes.

The extradition treaty signed between the Saudi Ministry of Justice and its Iraqi counterpart a few months ago will be put up for voting by the Iraqi parliament, Dr. Al-Obaidi said.