QATAR: DEATH PENALTY REPRIEVE

a lower criminal court which sentenced a housewife to face the firing squad for killing her maid had a lighter sentence imposed by the Qatar Court of Appeals, which ruled that the murder was not premeditated. The woman, convicted of stabbing the maid in rage, was sentenced to three years in jail and her husband, who was found guilty of being a part to the crime and sentenced to three years in prison by the lower court, was acquitted. The Mesaimeer police were informed in 2007 that a maid had committed suicide in a house in the Old Airport area and that her body was lying in the bathroom. However, investigators who were suspicious of the injuries found on her body carried out extensive interrogation of the couple and their two small children. Their five-year-old son told investigators that his mother used to severely beat the maid. When the father was interrogated, he replied that the son was not lying. He said he knew about what was going on with the maid but could not protect her since that would have made his wife suspicious that he had an affair with the maid. Medical reports confirmed that there were marks of injury, including those by a hot iron on the maid’s body.