Corpun file 4164

The Malay Mail, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 9 August 1999

Worldwide

Child rapists whipped and executed

SAN'A: Two men who raped and murdered a young boy were whipped in public, executed by firing squad and then strung up in southern Yemen yesterday, police officials said.

Mohammad Abdo Thabet, 27, and Mohammad Nayef Mohammad, 20, had been convicted of luring a 12-year-old boy into a laundry shop in the city of Dhamar, 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of here, in June.

They raped the boy, killed him, cut up his body and disposed of it in the desert, the court found.

Yesterday, the boy's family, whose name was not released, were among hundreds of onlookers in Dhamar's main square when the two men received 100 lashes each and were shot to death by firing squad, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The bodies were then strung up at the city's entrance. They are expected to remain there for three days as a deterrent.

Yemen, an impoverished country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, imposes the death penalty for rape and murder.

Most executions are carried out in public by a firing squad. -- AP