Despite recommendations to the contrary from Saudi Arabia's Supreme Judicial Council, one of the kingdom's lower courts upheld the death sentence ruling for a former Concordia student last week.
Mohamed Kohail and his younger brother Sultan-both Canadian citizens living in Saudi Arabia-as well as Jordanian citizen Homanna Essat, were convicted in the January 2007 death of Munzer Al-Hiraki following a schoolyard brawl. While Mohamed was sentenced to public beheading, Sultan originally received one year in prison as well as 200 lashes, since he was a minor at the time of the incident. However, a new trial is now underway in which he will be tried as an adult and may face the same punishment as his brother.
After Mohamed's sentence was upheld by the Appeals Court last November, the Supreme Judicial Council then referred it back to the Jidda General Court, who made the same decision last week. Dan McTeague, a Liberal MP who has been involved with the case for some time now, noted that the decision doesn't mark substantial progress in any direction.
"This decision was made only a few days after the Supreme Council had indicated that they wanted the lower court to revisit a whole host of issues, so it gives the impression that last week's announcement was really much ado about nothing, given that the lower court had decided that it wasn't going to consider any of the Superior Court's suggestions," McTeague said.
The case will now return to the Supreme Judicial Council, where the decision will be made whether to either concur with the Jidda General Court's findings, or to once again refer the decision back to a lower court. However, Aubrey Harris, who works for Amnesty International's campaign to abolish the death penalty, noted that a third possibility might exist for the Kohails.
"Under Saudi law, [the family of the victim] could forgive Mr. Kohail and Mr. Essat," Harris said. "They can pardon the offender. That's usually done in exchange for blood money, which is quite a lot of money usually. At the moment, from the evidence we have seen in the Arab news, the family of the victim has been approached by several people asking them to forgive the Kohails and Mr. Essat."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Sarah
posted 4/09/09 @ 7:32 PM EST
I'm glad the Tribune reported this story. I'm surprised at how little attention it is getting here in Canada. These are two Canadian university students facing the death penalty for an offense that hasn't been properly investigated. (Continued…)
Post a Comment