Two men were publicly executed in Yemen after being convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy and killing him.
Wadeh Refat, 28, and Mohamed Khaled, 31, were shot to death in the city of Aden on Feb. 7. Pictures from the scene showed the men standing in the middle of a crowd, waiting. At one point, Dr. Saleh Mohamed Hussein, a local doctor and official, gave them water to drink.
They eventually were forced to lay face-down. Two executioners with guns shot them multiple times as the crowd watched. Hundreds of people were said to gather for the execution, which took place after the men’s crimes were read aloud.
According to court documents, Refat and Khaled spotted the boy playing near one of their houses and grabbed him, forcing him into the home before raping him.
Warning: Videos contain scenes that may be disturbing to some, but do not show the execution.
Yemen: The execution of the death sentence against the Mujaasbi and killers of the child Mohamed Baroudi and the carry out of the sentence in a public place, Aden.07-02-2019 pic.twitter.com/KSKSQ2XoJm
— Rowan Van Dijk (@Lastkombo) February 8, 2019
Yemen: The execution of the death sentence against the Mujaasbi and killers of the child Mohamed Baroudi and the carry out of the sentence in a public place, Aden.07-02-2019 pic.twitter.com/LQ0Yoa809S
— Rowan Van Dijk (@Lastkombo) February 8, 2019
“After the rape, they could not silence the cries of the child, who begged for help, so one of them grabbed a knife and slit his throat,” officials stated in the documents, which were obtained by El Mundo.
A 33-year-old woman was also sentenced to death in the case, for being convicted of helping the men dismember the boy’s body, but her execution has been put on hold as she is currently pregnant.
Public executions are not uncommon in Yemen, which is one of a number of Middle Eastern countries where Islamic Sharia law is applied. Crimes punishable by execution include murder, rape, and blasphemy.
The latest execution was condemned by human rights groups.
“Public execution is an even more grotesque violation of human rights, particularly in a country where the ability of the accused to obtain adequate legal representation and the coverage of the process is highly limited,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch director, in a statement.
A bullet in the back for raping a boy
由 Daily Mail 发布于 2019年2月8日周五
Expanding on the view in response to backlash on Twitter, Whitson added: “The death penalty is always wrong, no matter how heinous the offense. And sadly little trust in the due process guarantees and capacities of Yemen judiciary.”
“Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all cases—the inherent dignity of the person cannot be squared w the death penalty, a form of punishment unique in its cruelty & finality. It is a punishment inevitably & universally plagued w arbitrariness, prejudice, and error,” she said.
The death penalty is always wrong, no matter how heinous the offense. And sadly little trust in the due process guarantees and capacities of Yemen judiciary. https://t.co/FlIbOgyFoA
— Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) February 8, 2019
While Yemen regularly carries out public executions, in the last year that full statistics were available for, the most known executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan, in that order, according to Amnesty International.
“China remains the world’s top executioner—but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figure of at least 993 recorded in 2017 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China,” the group stated.
“Excluding China, 84 percent of all reported executions took place in just four countries—Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan.”
