Public execution of child molester and murderer leads to chaos in Yemeni capital

A man convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl was executed in front of hundreds of spectators in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday, the first public execution there since 2009.

“Security was very tight because authorities feared a revenge attack by armed men from the Bani Matar tribe, to which the girl’s family belongs,” said Reuters photographer Khaled Abdullah, who witnessed the scene.

The police car that took 41-year-old Muhammad al-Maghrabi to Tahrir Square in Sanaa was accompanied by five patrol cars. The execution was watched by numerous spectators. Some sat on telegraph poles, many watched from rooftops.

When Maghrabi arrived, the crowd began to shout “Allah is the greatest.”

Police escort Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, who was convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl, to the place of execution in Sanaa. Source: Reuters

When Maghrabi arrived, the crowd began to shout: “Allah is the greatest.” Source: Reuters

“The man was escorted out of the van into the middle of the square and then there was complete chaos everywhere and I was fighting for a position to take photos,” Abdullah said.

“He tried to speak to the executioner, a policeman who stood calmly next to him, smoking a cigarette, before pointing his AK-47 at his back at close range.

“Soon after, he fired about four shots. People realized it had happened. They rushed to the scene and tried to take the body away. But the police managed to put the body in a van and drove it through the crowd out of the square.”

A boy waits to witness the execution. Source: Reuters

Yahya al-Matari, the father of murder victim Rana al-Matari, told reporters after the execution that he was satisfied.

“This is the first day of my life,” he said. “I am relieved now.”

Yemen has been devastated by more than two years of civil war between the Saudi-backed government and Houthi fighters who took over parts of the country in 2014 and 2015.