DOHA: A Doha court on Thursday sentenced a Qatari national to death for the murder last year of 24-year-old British teacher Lauren Patterson, a judicial source said.

A second Qatari, Mohammed Hasan Abdulaziz, was given three years in prison for aiding the first convict, Badr Khamis Abdullah Hashim in “burning the body of Lauren Patterson and erasing evidence” of the murder, the source said.

The men were arrested after the teacher’s charred remains were found by campers near Doha.

Patterson, who taught at a primary school in Doha, was last seen leaving the night club of a luxury hotel with two men, British media had reported. Her body was found soon afterwards.

The slain teacher’s mother, Alison Patterson, expressed satisfaction at the death sentence passed on Abdullah Hashim, saying in a statement issued in London that “justice has been served”.

However she criticized as “inadequate” the three-year jail term handed down to Hasan Abdulaziz.

“(He) was an accomplice to Lauren’s murder and he was aware of what had happened. At no time did he choose to help my daughter or report the murder.

“In fact he did the contrary; he helped (Abdullah Hashim) dispose of Lauren’s body in the most callous and barbaric way,” she said, adding, “Three years does not seem to reflect the magnitude of this crime.”

The last judicial killing in Qatar was in 2003 when a murderer was executed by firing squad.