Man sentenced to death for killing spree in Amran mosque

A Yemeni man was sentenced to death by firing squad on Saturday for killing seven people and injuring 12 others in a mosque in Amran, in the north of the country, late last month.

Chaired by Judge Abdul Bari Abdullah, the Penal Court of Amran, 80 km north of the capital Sana’a, handed the death sentence to Abdullah Zayed al-Kohali, 24. The shooting occurred in Kohal mosque on May 30, 2008. The court also fined al-Kohali 5,740,000 Yemeni rials (about $US 28,700) as compensation for those who were injured. The judge divided the sum according to the injuries.

The defendant al-Kohali was weeping as the judge pronounced the verdict.  He kept weeping, even when the judge asked, “Do you want to appeal?”

Khaled al-Shalali, the lawyer of the defendant who was appointed by the court, asked for an appeal and demanded that his client should be seen by a psychologist.

The murder of the mosque worshippers was criminally motivated. The defendant al-Kohali told the court in the first session earlier this month that he intended to avenge his “honor” by killing a man who had been sexually involved with his sister.

He said that the main target of his shooting was a fellow clansman identified as Belal Qassim al-Kohali. "He got my sister pregnant three times," the defendant replied to the judge when he asked about the motives for the crime.

Belal Qassim al-Kohali was among the six worshippers who died on the spot after the attacker opened fire in the mosque.

In a similar case, the same court chaired by the same judge decided to refer another man accused of setting fire to a mosque in the same province of Amran last year to a psychologist.
 
Hamid Ali Mukbel al-Shomi, 33, was accused of killing two men and injuring 24 others, while attending the Friday sermons, by setting fire to the mosque of Bait Al Amari, in Suda district, Amran province, on April 6, 2007. 

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