UAE woman executed for killing American teacher

DUBAI  — The United Arab Emirates executed a UAE woman on Monday who had been convicted of killing an American kindergarten teacher and trying to bomb an American-Egyptian doctor in militant-inspired attacks, the state news agency WAM reported.

Ala’a Badr Abdullah Al Hashemi, 31, had also been found guilty of setting up a social media account to spread militant ideology with the aim of undermining the government, and of giving money to militant organisations for attacks, WAM said.

The report did not disclose how Hashemi was executed but Gulf News, quoting security officials, said she was shot by firing squad.

Hashemi was sentenced to death on June 29 on terrorism charges for stabbing Romanian-born Ibolya Ryan, a mother of 11-year-old twins, in the toilet of an Abu Dhabi shopping mall on December 14 and for attempting to bomb an American-Egyptian doctor.

Hashemi placed a makeshift bomb outside the front door of the doctor’s apartment hours after killing Ryan but the device was safely dismantled, according to evidence submitted at the trial.

Police said last year that Hashemi had become radicalised over the internet and had not been targeting an American in particular but was looking for a foreigner to kill at random.

Attacks on Westerners are rare in the UAE, an oil exporter and tourism hub, but concern has been rising after a spate of Islamist actions in other Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The UAE has joined air strikes in Syria against the Daesh group, which has urged Muslims in Gulf countries to target Western expatriates in retaliation for attacks against it. The UAE is also a strong opponent of other Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Abu Dhabi-based daily The National said Hashemi had told prosecutors that she committed the crimes because state security agents had taken her husband into custody for questioning over suspected militant connections.

She was seeking vengeance for her husband and wanted to create fear, especially for American, British and French expatriates, she said.

But at her trial she also claimed that a mental illness was behind her actions and described herself as being possessed by evil spirits. During her trial she occasionally burst into tears or bouts of laughter, the newspaper said.

A medical report commissioned by the court found she was sane.

Rights group Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty, criticised the swift punishment because the security court in which she was convicted does not allow appeals.

“Under international law, a fundamental fair trial guarantee is the right to appeal one’s verdict,” Amnesty researcher Mansoureh Mills told Reuters.

“Unfortunately, all trials held before the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court are inherently unfair because nobody convicted before this court is allowed the right to appeal their verdict,” she said.