This was the verdict that Moshe al-Nahari's family were dreading - a verdict that acquits his murderer on payment of a fine. And we learn that the courtroom was sealed for fear of a backlash - from frustrated Jews, surely...
AMRAN, Yemen (AFP) — A Yemeni court on Monday ordered a man convicted of gunning down a Jewish father-of-nine to pay 27,500 dollars in blood money, sparing the man from a death sentence as he was "mentally abnormal."
In a case that has stoked fear in the country's tiny Jewish community, Abdul Aziz Yahya al-Abdi, a 39-nine-year-old Muslim Yemeni, remains in detention after admitting in December to shooting dead Masha Yaeish al-Nahari in the town of Raydah in Amran province.
Nahari's widow and father said they will appeal the sentence and call for the death penalty.
Abdi, a former air force pilot, had repeatedly said he carried out the murder after warning Yemeni Jews that he would kill them unless they converted to Islam, the court heard during his trial last month.
The prosecution had called for a death sentence to be imposed but the court opted for the blood money sentence after medical reports showed Abdi was "mentally abnormal", an AFP correspondent reported.
Amran is home to some 250 of Yemen's remaining Jewish minority of about 400 people.
As the court session got underway on Monday, the authorities sealed off the court building for fear of a violent backlash in the village north of the capital Sanaa.
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