News: honor killing, hijacking

[qatarperegrine]

• The Qatari appeals court has just commuted the sentence of a Jordanian teenager who killed his sister in an apparent honor killing. Instead of three years in jail, he now gets a one-year suspended sentence. To my knowledge, Qatar does not officially soften penalties in the case of honor killings, but in practice it seems they are pretty sympathetic to the perpetrator.


• The trial has begun for the apparent attempted hijacking of a Qatar Airways plane last year. I had not previously heard the accused was a former camel jockey, nor that he was at the time applying for asylum in Israel. I hope we hear more in the paper about his asylum request. Since Qatar finally outlawed child jockeys and replaced them with robots shortly after we moved here, I hadn't given much thought to what happened to former jockeys.


• In lighter news: I'm all for imams fighting for the betterment of those in poverty, but must they look so terrifying?

Comments

[rmitz.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we should take a moment to consider that the original "harsh" sentence was three years in jail for the MURDER of his SISTER. Or manslaughter, if you want to split hairs. And admitted assaults. I could cry.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

And meanwhile two hashish smugglers got the death penalty.

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

And this line in the article:

"The upper court’s decision means that if the convict repeated the offence within the next three years, the judgement will be carried out."

Does he even have another sister to murder? Do we want to find out?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Wow. Somehow I didn't notice that sentence.

[dubaiwalla.livejournal.com]

I hadn't given much thought to what happened to former jockeys.
If it's anything like what happened with the UAE, they often couldn't find their parents, and were sent to orphanages instead. Oh, and those who did have families did not necessarily speak the same language, what with having been out of their home countries for so long. One also seriously doubts the ones who were physically or sexually abused could afford therapy. In short, a whole new set of problems.

poverty and looking fierce

[douglasperkins.livejournal.com]

Well in the US we have Edwards who looks good and tries to fight poverty ... might as well attempt various tactics across the globe, just in case one works.

Re: poverty and looking fierce

[qatar.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that's what he had in mind.

IT IS A REAL CATCH 22

[(Anonymous)]

BECAUSE according to the sharia - the relatives have the right to forgive and ask for blood money instead . And the relatives do not want to lose one more child -so they forgive .

Re: IT IS A REAL CATCH 22

[qatar.livejournal.com]

So is that just? That he killed his sister in cold blood, and there are no repercussions?

Now I am not a big fan of punitive, retributive justice; I don't believe in "an eye for an eye." But it seems to me that society is sending a very negative message about the value of a woman's life if someone can commit an honor killing and suffer no consequences at all.

Re: IT IS A REAL CATCH 22

[(Anonymous)]

I did not say I am agreed on the practice at all .I am just as horrified as you are .
But the above mentioned system leads to problems of punishment .
in the wikipedia there is an interesting article on honour killing
in jordan it is allowed .

Re: IT IS A REAL CATCH 22

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry it took me so long to respond.

Yes, it did catch my attention that this was a Jordanian family. Why is this so much more acceptable in Jordan than elsewhere, I wonder?