Family of Simon Cumbers have no comment on execution

The family of murdered Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers has declined to comment on the execution of his killer.

Adel al-Dhubaiti was one of 47 men executed in Saudi Arabia for various terrorism offences including murder.

His brother Stephen told The Irish Times that the "family have no comment to make regarding this matter".

In June 2004 Mr Cumbers was shot through the head after being ambushed while filming with BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner in a suburb of Riyadh. He died at the scene. Mr Gardner was left paraplegic.

Speaking on the fifth anniversary of his death in 2009, his parents Robert and Bronagh appealed to the Saudi government not to execute his killer. Robert Cumbers told the Meath Chronicle: "Simon was a pacifist, someone who would not have wanted the death penalty and would have opposed it. We do not want this man to be executed if he is found guilty."

His mother said: “I don’t want to see anybody dying.”

Gardner has said that he can never forgive or forget the man who shot him and that his assailant never expressed any remorse for what he had done.

"He is completely unrepentant. He has never said sorry. He is still in the mindset that he had when he attacked us. So forgiveness is not really an option," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

“It’s not like this man’s parents have written to me or anyone saying, ‘Please forgive him’. No one has apologised.”

When sentence was passed on al-Dhubaiti, Gardner responded: “I don’t feel any kind of triumphalism at all. This is no one-nil moment. Justice has been served.

“The court has looked at the evidence. My understanding is that he has not offered any defence for what he did. It was inexcusable.”