By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

Villagers watching and filming the lynching of Mohammed Muslem. [Source: AP]

KETERMEYA, Lebanon – Twelve men have been charged with murder after last month’s lynching of Mohammed Muslem, an Egyptian national living in the south-eastern Lebanese village of Ketermaya. Muslem was suspected in the quadruple-murder of an elderly couple and their two young granddaughters last month. The victims were the mother and father of local school teacher Rana Abu Merhi, as well as her two young daughters aged nine and seven.

Muslem, a village butcher, was a neighbor of the slain family. He had a prior criminal record and was a suspect in the rape of a thirteen year old girl in Ketermaya earlier this year.

He was arrested hours after the murder and confessed to the crime after spending the night in custody. The next morning, as a thousands of villagers gathered for the funeral of the slain family members, a police car carrying Muslem and six policemen passed the procession. The villagers overwhelmed the police car, dragged Muslem out of the car, and beat him.

The police were able to get Muslem back into the car and managed to take him to the local hospital. However, the the mob followed and dragged him back into the streets. Villagers say that the policemen disappeared after Muslem was dropped off at the hospital.

Muslem was stripped to his underwear and socks, paraded through the streets, and hoisted onto an electrical pole with a butcher’s hook.

The mob was eventually dispersed by Lebanese troops, who took away Muslem’s body when they arrived. The incident was filmed and footage of the lynching went online almost immediately, to the horror of many Lebanese citizens. 

 

The lynching has called into question the efficacy of law and order in Lebanon, a country with a reputation as one of the most progressive and liberal countries in the Arab world. In particular, the decision of the police officers involved to take Muslem to the murder site during the funeral procession, and to leave him unguarded at the hospital, have been criticized. Questions also remain as to how the crowd was informed of Muslem’s confession.

One young resident of Ketermaya told the BBC that he thought the policemen brought Muslem back because they wanted justice as well. Outside of a Ketermaya shop hung with graphic photos of the murdered children a signed is displayed reading: “We would like to thank the authorities for allowing justice to take place.”

Omar Nashabe, law editor of the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar and criminal justice expert, said:

“The police seem to have acted like a judge. Violation of the presumption of innocence is a continuous problem in Lebanon, but this is just one side of the Ketermaya incident.” Nashabe added: “They killed an innocent man, a man who was not proven guilty by a court of law, who never had an opportunity to defend himself.”

Justice Minister Ibrahim Najarr responded to criticism of the Lebanese government which emerged in response to the incident, saying “Justice in Lebanon exists. We have judges, we have tribunals, we have credibility.” Najarr also referred to the arrest of those who allegedly participated in the lynching as evidence of law and order in Lebanon.

He told BBC reporter Natalia Antelava that, “After such a savage crime people were angry. This could have happened in any country.”

Antelava asked Najarr: “When was the last time you heard of police delivering a murder suspect to an angry mob?”

Antelava reported that Najarr did not have a reply to the question.

Two policemen involved in the incident have received a ten-day suspension.

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Lebanon charges 12 over butcher’s hook lynching – 20 May 2010

BBC – Village mob lynching raises questions for Lebanon – 20 May 2010

UPI – Legal Expert: Lebanon lacks law and order – 20 May 2010

Al Jazeera – Lebanon Makes Arrests Over Lynching – 8 May 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Six Somali pirates, captured by Yemeni forces in April last year, were sentenced to death by a Yemen court on Tuesday. Six others were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and together must pay $2 million compensation for hijacking an oil tanker.

Part of Tuesday’s ruling by a criminal court requires the convicted pirates to pay the company that owns the hijacked vessel, Masafi Aden, a sum of 2 million Yemen riyals ($9,200).

The Defense Ministry’s online newspaper said the court would require Masafi Aden to pay a certain portion of the reparations to the Yemeni victims’ families.

On April 26, 2009, they hijacked the Yemeni ship Qana, owned by Adan Refinery Company, near the coast of Yemen. Yemeni forces recaptured the ship and took 12 pirates prisoner, but two crew members were killed in the struggle.

Piracy is a major problem off the coast of Somalia, where gangs of pirates have hijacked dozens of ships in the past few years.

International naval patrols have largely not been able to stop the attacks.

Furthermore, many captured pirates have been released because no country would prosecute them.  Kenya has conducted some pirate trials but recently said its justice system is overburdened.

For more information, please see:

The Epoch Times – Six Somali Pirates Sentenced To Death In Yemen – 19 May 2010

VOA News – Yemen Court Sentences Somali Pirates To Death – 18 May 2010

Reuters – Yemen Court Sentences Six Somali Pirates To Death – 18 May 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Al Qaeda’s Yemen wing has claimed a suicide attack on the British ambassador to Sanaa, accusing him of leading a war on Muslims in the Arabian peninsula on Britain’s behalf, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

SITE Intelligence Group said in a news release that Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack in a communique released on jihadist forums Tuesday.

The British envoy survived the April 26 attempt on his life, carried out by a suicide bomber who targeted his convoy in Sanaa in an attack Yemen said bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda. The bomber was killed and three people were wounded.

The attack on came four months after the Yemen-based branch of al-Qaeda tried to blow up a U.S. airliner with 278 passengers as it approached Detroit.

John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, said on Jan. 3 that there were probably several hundred al-Qaeda members in Yemen and that the U.S. was concerned they may be training other operatives for attacks in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and holder of one-fifth of global reserves, also faces a threat from al- Qaeda militants based across the border with Yemen. In August, the group attempted to assassinate a top Saudi internal security official, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz.

Yemen is the poorest Arab country, and the government expects oil reserves that fund 70 percent of the budget to run out over the next decade.

The U.K. hosted an aid conference in January for Yemen that promised further assistance if the government carries out political and economic improvements that would allow better use of foreign donations.

In the statement, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula vilified Britain for convening the London conference, SITE said.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Yemen Al Qaeda Arm Claims Attack On UK Ambassador – 12 May 2010

AP – Al-Qaeda Group Claims April Attack In Yemen – May 12 2010

Bloomsburg – Al-Qaeda Claims Failed Attack On UK Envoy – May 12 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Yemen’s government has announced it will not extradite Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born jihadist cleric who is credited with inspiring the recent wave of anti-American terrorist plots by al Qaeda recruits.

Over the weekend, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al Qirbi said Mr. al-Awlaki would be tried in the Arabian Peninsula state once he is captured.

“The man the U.S. wants to be extradited will stand trial in Yemen under the national law,” Mr. al Qirbi was quoted as saying in the Yemen state news agency, al Saba.

“Because of his recent terrorist activity, Awlaki is now wanted by the Yemeni government. Hence, he must be tried … in his homeland but never by other governments,” Qirbi was quoted as telling Kuwait’s al-Dar newspaper.

U.S. officials said in April President Barack Obama’s administration had authorized operations to capture or kill U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki — a leading figure linked to al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing, which claimed responsibility for a failed bombing of a Detroit-bound plane in December.

On Christmas Eve, the United States launched an armed drone attack on a compound in Yemen where Mr. al-Awlaki was thought to be staying. The attack missed him.

Mr. al-Awlaki is the spiritual leader of the group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda. The group is thought to have several thousand armed followers and operates in areas of Yemen that are not under the full control of the San’a government.

Awlaki has said he had contacts with a Nigerian suspect in the attempted bombing of the transatlantic passenger plane and with a U.S. army psychiatrist accused of shooting dead 13 people at a military base in Texas in November.

Andy Johnson, a former staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview that Mr. al-Awlaki is like Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, because of his success in radicalizing recruits.

“Awlaki clearly is a driving force in the effort to recruit and radicalize people to carry out jihadist or extremist attacks,” said Mr. Johnson, who is now director of national security programs for the think tank Third Way.

Mr. al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico, was in e-mail contact with Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged in the killings of 13 people and woundings of 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5.

For more information, please see:

The Washington Times – Yemen Refuses To Let U.S. Try Cleric – 12 May 201

Reuters – Yemen Says Will Not Turn Over Militant Cleric To U.S. – 12 May 2010

Jawa Report – Yemen Refuses To Extradite Awlaki – 12 May 2010