JEDDAH/ABHA, 1 April 2007 — The long story of the 32-year-old woman who became famous as “the Khamis Girl” after having been sentenced to death for murder may soon come to an end, according to a close relative who spoke to Arab News yesterday on phone on condition of anonymity.

The story began eight years ago when the housewife from Khamis Mushayt, 30 km east of Abha, was imprisoned as a suspect in the murder of a man who was not related to her. The verdict was not announced until June 28, 2004, when she was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

After the verdict was announced, several attempts were made to reach an agreement with the slain man’s family.

But last weekend, according to the relative, the slain man’s family went to Riyadh and willingly relinquished their right to demand the woman’s execution after meeting members of the royal family.

Over the years, the execution of the woman has been postponed a number of times in hopes that the murdered man’s family would change their minds. Many tribal leaders from inside and outside the region as well as members from the Shoura Council have visited the victim’s family in attempts to persuade them to forgive the woman.

The murdered man, with whom the Khamis Girl had an affair before her marriage, did not want to end their relationship and threatened to show pictures of her to her husband and other people.

She told police that the man demanded that she have sex with him and on one occasion when he tried to rape her, she killed him. She was 24 at the time; the man’s body was later found, burned and cut into pieces, in a dumpster.

For the past three years the victim’s family has been consistent in rejecting all offers to forgive the woman who they insist deserves execution. “An eye for any eye,” has been their only comment since the murder. A woman in her early twenties alone cannot kill a man, burn him, cut him into pieces and throw him into a dumpster in cold blood. Some men from her family must have helped her, contends the slain man’s family.

A citizen of Khamis Mushayt, explaining the tribal complexity and its consequences in the conservative Southern Region, said to Arab News, “Both the murdered man and the murderer are from well-known tribes. The girl’s family, Al-Murait, is however, superior to the victim’s family Al-Kulais.”

Interestingly, the woman’s husband told Arab News in 2005, “I believe her and will never give up on her.”

One of the woman’s brothers checked at the court in Khamis Mushayt yesterday on her legal situation but nothing has yet been officially announced.

The anonymous relative said, “We are waiting for the final word on this case this week. All the woman’s siblings living outside Khamis Mushayt have come to town to welcome her as she walks out of jail.”