Ramallah: Two Palestinian brothers have been given a reprieve after being sentenced to death for murdering their niece in a so-called ‘honour killing’ by forcing her to swallow poison while pointing a gun to her head.
The Palestinian Criminal Court has commuted the death sentence with imprisonment of ten and seven years after the victim’s parents gave up their rights in the case.
The 20-year-old victim — identified only as T.S. — fled home when her family discovered she had agreed to marry a man she had fallen in love with. She sought refuge at the house of a community leader in Nablus, who vowed to protect her.
The court heard that the victim’s father and his brothers visited the community leader and asked him to hand over the woman. He initially refused but relented after the father and his brothers promised that no harm would come to her.
The father handed over his daughter to his brothers, who accompanied her to another house in Nablus, where they prepared a cup of juice for her. On the first sip, the woman became suspicious but one of her uncles pointed a gun to her head and threatened to shoot her unless she drank all the juice.
A senior court official told Gulf News that according to the confession of the two uncles, their niece took two hours to die after swallowing a large amount of the juice. The uncles told police that the woman had committed suicide after her father forbade her from marrying her sweetheart — a story backed up by the father and mother.
However, after an extensive investigation by the police and public prosecution, the uncles were arrested and confronted with the evidence. They confessed, saying they killed their niece for insisting on marrying the man she loved.
The Palestinian Criminal Court had sentenced the two murderers to death but reprieved them on Monday because of the decision of the victim’s parents to give up their rights in the case.
