A 22-year-old Saudi man convicted of raping five young children over the past few years will be beheaded and posthumously crucified in the coming days.

According to Saudi media, the severe sentence reflected the brutality of the man's crimes. One of his victims, a 3-year-old toddler, was left to die in the desert following his rape.

As the crucifixion will take place after the beheading, it will consist of strapping the headless corpse to an elevated beam for public display.

International rights groups are using the recent sentences to highlight what they call Saudi Arabia's dismal human rights record. The kingdom routinely publicly executes murderers, rapists and drug dealers. Forty Saudis have been executed, most by beheading, in 2009.