A Yemeni appeals court has upheld the death sentence handed down on a Sudanese morgue attendant for the grisly murder of two young women at Sanaa University, court sources said Thursday.
The court said Mohammad Adam should be executed by firing squad for the "kidnap, rape and murder of two students," Hosn Ahmad Attiya from Yemen in February 2000 and fellow student Zeinab Saud Aziz, an Iraqi, in December 1999.
The court, which met Wednesday, also ordered the public treasury to pay compensation of five million riyals (31,250 dollars) to each of the victims' families, the source said.
Furthermore, it called on the Yemeni government to speed up the repatriation of the remains of the Iraqi student to her family for burial, from the morgue where they are still being kept.
Adam, dubbed the "Sanaa Ripper", was found guilty and condemned to death in November after a six-month trial. He was also sentenced to 80 lashes for alcoholism.
The women, both in their early 20s, were butchered at the university's morgue. The self-confessed killer said he strangled his victims, chopped up their bodies, dissolved them in acid and threw the remains into the sewers.
The 53-year-old Sudanese initially confessed to the rape and murder of 16 young women, including eight university students, but retracted most of his confession June 3 after one of the alleged victims showed up in the Sanaa courtroom.
His death sentence must now be ratified by Yemen's supreme court and then approved by President Ali Abdullah Saleh – SANAA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
