Primary Court releases Ameena Al-Tuhaif, adultery charge remains [Archives:2007/1093/Front Page]
SANA'A, Oct., 10 ) The Yemeni government represented by the Attorney General has released Ameena Ali Abdullah Al-Tuhaif along with her child who was born in the prison. Ameena is one of the citizens of Shibam district, Mahwait governorate. She and her accomplice who was passionately in love with her were convicted of murdering her husband in January, 1998.
The primary court in Al-Mahwait issued a verdict in May 2007 sentencing Ameena to ten years of imprisonment as well as paying blood money to her husband's heirs in addition to two months of fasting.
However, the husband's relatives refused to take blood money, making an appeal. The primary prosecution of Al-Mahwait did not release Ameena as the latter was also accused of committing adultery resulting in giving birth in prison.
Ameena's case has evoked widespread interest among European organizations expressing their readiness to stand up for her. She was convicted of killing her husband before she had attained legal age. Subsequently, Italian CR organization for researches and studies adopted Ameena's case and substantially supported the issue of releasing her.
IAO, International Amnest Organization, made a big deal of the issue, intervening seriously. It issued an immediate call to stop the death penalty which was to be carried out on April, 26, 2005. It also addressed all the Yemeni officials and parties in the negotiating process.
Likewise, The European Union played a big role in this respect; they summoned the Yemeni ambassador in Belgium, demanding that he stop the execution of Ameena and release her. The European Union office based in Sana'a also followed up the case with the president.
Ameena received a lot of international sympathy in America, Europe and worldwide. They followed up the case seriously with the convict's lawyer, Shatha M. Nasser.
Shatha's efforts
“I worked since April, 2005 without any return. I did that to serve justice and humanity where I, on a daily basis, followed up the case in the Ministry of Human Rights, as well as the office of the Attorney General. I also contacted the Yemeni and the foreign newspapers in addition to organizations concerned about human rights and other concerned parties,” Shatha said.
“I desired to hand over blood money and to release Ameena quickly. Yet officials especially those in the republic presidency office ignored my continuous follow-ups. This is attributed to the fact that I come from Aden governorate- south of Yemen. If she came from north governorate, they would have facilitated her task and informed her about the release decision issued by the president since then,” she further explained.
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