The Bekaa Criminal Court handed down two death sentences,...

The Bekaa Criminal Court handed down two death sentences, convicting a man and a woman of murder in two separate cases.Idriss Shayeh, an Iraqi national formerly employed at a plastics factory in Ablah, was sentenced for the 1996 shooting death of Ibrahim Abu Hamdan, his former supervisor at the factory. Shayeh killed him after the latter refused to dispel rumors that Shayeh had robbed the factory.The court also sentenced Nazha Arafat for poisoning her stepdaughter, Latifa Ajam. Arafat was also convicted of attempting to kill her husband, Saleh Ajam, and his stepson Mohammed in the same manner. Arafat said she decided to kill her husband because he was tardy in paying back an unspecified amount of money.