Manama: Yemen's most prominent woman prisoner, Ameenah Abdul Latif, has been freed after ten years in jail for allegedly murdering her husband in 1998.
She is now staying with friends as ties with her family are severed, the film producer who played a crucial role in her release yesterday told Gulf News.
"The authorities on Tuesday finally allowed Ameenah to walk out of the prison after we completed all the legal procedures and requirements," Khadija Salami said in Manama where she made a short stop.
"I now feel so relieved after the strenuous legal and social battles we had to endure for years to get her out of prison. Her release is one of the proudest moments in my life," said the first female Yemeni producer whose documentary on Ameenah's life and prison conditions earned her international fame and awards.
Khadija escorted Ameenah out of the prison and took her to an undisclosed location.
"I will now see how I can help her find a job and slowly resume her life after the terrible times she suffered," she said.
Ameenah had been sentenced to death for allegedly taking part in the murder of her husband, Hezn Hasam Qabail. At the time of her arrest in 1998, she had no documents to prove her age, a common occurrence in Yemen.
A government-appointed doctor established her age at the time of the crime as being between 14 and 15. Under Yemen's laws, she can be sentenced to death only if she is 15 at the time of the murder.
However, Yemen has signed the Child Rights Convention, which states that 18 is the legal age for capital punishment.
Ameenah said she was initially tortured into confessing the murder, but has later continually maintained her innocence. In 2002, she was scheduled to be executed, but was saved because a rape allegedly at the prison made her pregnant.
In 2005, she was again scheduled to be executed, but the execution was stayed pending a review to determine her age at the time of the offence.
Khadija, who shared with Ameenah the pain of being forced into a marriage at the age of 12, helped raise her case by presenting to the world a chilling account of the woman prisoner on death row.
