GAZA: YOUTH SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER

September 17, 2012: A Gaza court sentenced a Palestinian youth to death by hanging after he was found guilty of two murder charges.
The Court of Appeal said the man, named as H.A., admitted to stabbing another man to death in 2009. H.A. was under 18 at the time of the crime, which was premeditated, the court said.
During interrogation over the stabbing, H.A. admitted to the rape and murder of a male child relative in 2010.
After the rape, H.A. said he hit him over the head and threw him into a pit, where he buried him alive with gravel.
A total of 14 Palestinians have now been executed since the Islamist group Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 from Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the use of the death penalty in Gaza. (Sources: Ma'an, 17/09/2012)