Man Who Assaulted, Killed Child Is Publicly Executed in Yemen

Police officers prepare to execute Muhammad al-Maghrabi (center in blue). (Reuters)

SANAA — A man convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a three-year-old girl was executed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday in front of hundreds of onlookers, witnesses said.

A policeman fired five bullets from an assault rifle into Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, as he lay with his hands handcuffed behind his back on a blanket on the ground in Sanaa’s Tahrir Square, after a judge read out the death sentence.

The execution drew an unusually large number of onlookers — some perched up telegraph poles and many watching from rooftops — because of the young age of Rana al-Matari, the victim.

(Reuters)

According to reports, his executor shot him with a machine gun. Some onlookers photographed the scene with their cellphones. Yemen’s Saba News Agency reported that it was “performed in a public place in Tahrir Square in central Sanaa where thousands of people witnessed the event.”

Security was tight amid fears of a revenge attack on Maghrabi by armed tribesmen related to his victim. The police truck transporting Maghrabi to the square was escorted by five police patrol vehicles.

Yahya al-Matari, the father of the girl, told reporters after the execution that he felt as if he had been reborn.

“This is the first day in my life,” he said. “I am relieved now.”

The Epoch Times contributed to this report.