SANAA: A man convicted of killing 10 people in a shooting spree outside a mosque in northwestern Yemen last year was executed by a firing squad in his home city yesterday, a security source said.
A police firing squad shot dead Abdullah Saleh Al-Kohali, 27, in the central prison of Amran, about 70 kilometers north of the capital Sanaa, the source told Arab News.
He was executed after the verdict sentencing him to death was read out by a judge at the prison’s courtyard, the source added.
Officials have said the assailant opened fire from a machinegun as worshippers were performing the prayers outside the mosque in Bait Al-Aqari village in Amran’s Kohal district last May.
Relatives of the dead worshippers attended the execution, but photographers and cameramen were not allowed into the prison.
Al-Kohali was convicted to death by a court in Amran last June after he confessed to the crime.
The ruling has been confirmed by an appeals court.
Al-Kohali told the court he intended to avenge his honor by killing a man sexually involved with his sister. He said the main target of his shooting was a fellow clansman identified as Belal Qassim Al-Kohali.
“He got my sister pregnant three times,” the defendant told the judges.
Belal Al-Kohali was among six worshippers who died on the spot after the attacker opened fire outside the small village mosque during weekly prayers on May 30. Four other people died later of wounds they sustained during the attack.
Judges rejected the defense lawyers’ arguments that their client was mentally incompetent.
The court also ordered the convicted man to pay 5.7 million riyals (about $28,700) in compensation to the 15 people injured in the attack.
