An interesting contrast here. A couple of cases of honour killing in the Middle East - one attemped, one successful.
The first, from Israel:
The Nazareth District Court sentenced Khaled Muslemi, 24, to 14 years in prison for the attempted murder of his sister.
According to the indictment, Muslemi, a resident of the Arab Village Of Naura in the Jezreel Valley, decided to execute an "honor killing" in March, after hearing rumors that his sister was behaving promiscuously.
He convinced her to accompany him to a field near their village, where he pulled out a gun and shot her in the head, the shoulder and the leg from a distance of three feet. He then called the Gilboa Region Magen David Adom station and confessed to the murder.
The woman, gravely injured but still alive, pretended to be dead, thus averting further shots. Her resourcefulness saved her life.
The prosecution asked the court to sentence Muslemi to 15 years in prison, but the defense asked to court for a lighter, 11-year sentence, citing extreme emotional duress.
"The despicable, repetitive phenomenon of murder and the attempted murder of innocent women under the pretence of 'honor killings' must be condemned in the harshest manner possible," noted the court.
"Acts such as the defendant's bear no honor. They bear only shame and disgrace. The court is disgusted by the defendant's decision to be his sister's executioner and by the fact that her life meant so little to him… and all just to be perceived as someone protecting his family's reputation."
The three judge panel sentenced Muslemi to 14 years in jail, with an additional thee years probation.
And the second, from Jordan:
AMMAN - A 19-year-old who killed his divorced sister in the name of family honour when he was a minor in September 2006, walked free from the Criminal Court on Monday after receiving a reduced sentence.
The court sentenced the defendant, who was 17 at the time of the murder, to serve 16 months at a juvenile centre after convicting him of stabbing his 24-year-old sibling to death at their family's home on September 19.
But the court ordered his immediate release since he already spent the sentence period in custody while on trial, according to the verdict.
The same court acquitted the victim's 55-year-old father, a truck driver, of complicity in custody in premeditated murder charges for lack of evidence...."The victim reportedly went with her husband to a lawyer's office on the day of the incident where she wrote a letter listing the names of all the men she had slept with in return for money," the court said.
When the victim returned home, her father tied her up in an attempt to prevent her from leaving the house, then decided to take her to his brother's house where she wrote a similar list in front of her mother, siblings and uncles.
"Upon returning home, the defendant, who was not present during the victim's visit to her uncle's house, heard about the matter from his father and became enraged," the court said.
The minor rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed his sister repeatedly until he made sure she was dead, while his father watched, according to court papers.
"The father congratulated the defendant and told him that he had cleansed the family's honour," court papers said.In its ruling, the court decided to amend the premeditated murder charges to a misdemeanour as stipulated in Article 98 of the Penal Code because the defendant committed the murder in a moment of rage.
"It is obvious that the defendant did not plot the murder and his actions came immediately after reading his sister's confessions," the court said, noting that the defendant benefits from a reduction in penalty because his sister was involved in extramarital affairs in return for money, which led to her divorce and "brought her family shame and disgrace".
"Her actions hurt her parents, brothers and unmarried sisters' honour and reputation and are considered by the court as dangerous and unlawful, especially to the defendant, since in our customs and traditions a man is valued by his sister's behaviour and honour among his community," the court ruled.
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