YEMEN: A SOLDIER EXECUTED

February 7, 2009: Bashir Sultan Mohamed al-Ja’fari, a soldier in the Yemeni army, was executed at the military prison in the capital Sana’a. In August 2006, a military court had sentenced him to pay diya ("blood money"), for the unintentional killing of a fellow soldier. However, in November 2007, a military appeal court ruled that he should receive a death sentence. The Military Division of the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in March 2008, and it was ratified by Yemen’s President seven months later. (Sources: Amnesty International, 17/02/2009)