GAZA: WOMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH BY HANGING

October 5, 2016: A court in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip sentenced a Palestinian woman to death by hanging on October 5, after she was convicted of premeditated murder, according to a statement released by the prosecution's office. The court convicted the woman, identified only by her initials N.A., of killing her husband Rabie Abu Anzeh, 36. Anzeh was found dead in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 30.
A day before the sentencing of N.A., the general prosecution in Gaza appealed a decision made last month by a court in Deir al-Balah, when a man was found guilty of killing one of his wives with the complicity of his second wife and sentenced to ten years in prison, while his second wife was released.
Gaza's Attorney General Ismail Jabir said the court accepted the appeal because "there has been an error in the implementation of law." The court, he said, ignored evidence submitted by the general prosecution and eventually found the husband guilty of manslaughter instead of premeditated murder.
In May, Gaza-based legislators decided that death sentences would be “obligatory after all possible appeals against them are completed.”
This ratification of the death penalty law has paved the way for the execution of at least a dozen Palestinians who have been sentenced to death in the Gaza Strip.
On May 17, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh announced that 13 Palestinians had been sentenced to death by Gaza courts and would be executed as soon as possible. (Sources: Ma'an, 05/10/2016)