Photos: Yemen publicly executes man convicted of child rape, murder

A man convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl was executed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in front of hundreds of onlookers, the first public execution in the Middle Eastern republic since 2009. ...read more

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A Yemeni man convicted in the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl was publicly executed in the capital Sanaa. The convict Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, was the first person to be executed in public in the Middle Eastern nation since 2009. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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While capital punishments are a legal practice in Yemen, punishment is meted out in the form of public or private shooting, with measures for death by stoning, beheading and hanging also existing within the Yemeni penal system which abides by the Sharia code. Yemen has one of the highest execution rates in the entire would. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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Police officers escort Muhammad al-Maghrabi to Tahrir Square, the city’s central public square ahead of his execution on July 31, 2017. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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Hundreds of onlookers gathered at the site to witness the public shooting, the country’s first in nearly a decade, with many perched on telephone poles and rooftops amid a tight security cordon. Authorities feared retributive violence from members of the Bani Matar tribe to which the aggrieved family belongs. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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In line with Yemeni legal practice, al-Maghrabi was brought into the square in an inmate’s jumpsuit and placed face down, handcuffed with police officers wielding machine guns standing over him. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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In the moments leading to the execution, the crowds broke into chants of ‘Allah is the greatest’, while the convicted man tried speaking to his executioner who stood by him smoking a cigarette, before taking aim with his AK-47. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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Yahya al-Matari (C) walks at the site of the execution of Muhammad al-Maghrabi, 41, who was convicted of raping al-Matari's three-year-old daughter. He told reporters present at the execution ‘This is the first day in my life’, adding ‘I am relieved now.’ (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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Four shots rang loud in the air, and justice was served. As the echoes spread out, the crowd rushed in towards the body but was held off by the security cordon. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)

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The police swiftly moved al-Maghrabi’s body and moved out of the square before the crowd could get to it --a return to everyday life in the country, already embroiled in an ongoing war between its Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels. (Khaled Abdullah / REUTERS)