YEMEN: WOMAN ACCUSED OF ADULTERY AND PROSTITUTION STONED TO DEATH BY AL-QAEDA

A woman has been stoned to death in south-east Yemen after being accused of adultery and prostitution by an Al-Qaeda Sharia court.
The married woman was reportedly killed in a public execution in the city of Al Mukalla, which has been under the control of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) since April last year.
Al-Qaeda militants 'placed the woman in a hole in the middle of the courtyard of a military building and stoned her to death in the presence of dozens of residents', according to an eyewitness report.
'This was the first time we have seen such a thing,' a witness said.
A copy of the purported verdict issued by a local Sharia court set up by the militants in December, said the married woman had 'confessed in front of the judges to committing adultery'.
The verdict said the woman also admitted 'without any coercion that she practised prostitution, as a pimp... and that she worked with a group of women in brothels'.
She also confessed to smoking hashish, it added.
The verdict said that the woman was sentenced to be stoned to death for 'committing adultery as a married woman... and eighty lashes for consuming hashish'.