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Kurdistan: A Christian convert Kurdish
girl convicted of murdering her Muslim uncle
8.3.2007
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Kurdish
convert girl to appeal five-year sentence for
killing uncle
March 8, 2007
Duhok, Kurdistan Region (Iraq), -- A
Christian Kurdish teenager has been sentenced to
five years in juvenile detention in Kurdistan region
(Iraq) for fatally stabbing her Muslim uncle
while he beat her for converting to Christianity,
her lawyer said.
Judge Satar Sofe convicted 15-year-old Asya Ahmad
Muhammad of murder at the trial’s first hearing on
February 7 in Dohuk’s juvenile court. Muhammad’s
defense lawyer appealed the ruling on February 17,
questioning Sofe’s conclusion that the killing had
been intentional.
“The court should consider Maria’s [Muhammad’s
Christian name] case unintentional killing because
she didn’t intend to kill her uncle,” Akram Mikhael
Al-Najar told Compass.
The lawyer said Muhammad’s five-year sentence was
light, considering that Iraq’s penal code invokes
the death penalty for committing murder.
“Since her uncle provoked her and kicked and abused
her, the court appreciated these situations and
decreased her punishment,” Al-Najar said.
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Asya Ahmad Muhammad, her Muslim uncle while he beat
her for converting to Christianity
Photo:compassdirect org |
The lawyer expects the
Kurdistan regional Court of Cassation, northern
Iraq’s highest court, to rule on the appeal within
three months. Even if the appeal is turned down, Al-Najar
told Compass that Muhammad could be released after
serving only three quarters of her five-year
sentence.
Muhammad stabbed her paternal uncle with a kitchen
knife last July when he came to her family’s kitchen
utensil store on the outskirts of Dohuk and began
beating her, her mother and younger brother.
Sayeed Muhammad’s Muslim family claimed that he
attacked his relatives in order to restore “honor”
supposedly lost because his female in-laws were
working in public. But Asya Muhammad’s father and
lawyer said that the real motive for the attack was
religious.
Asya Muhammad’s father, Ahmad, told Compass that his
brother had previously tried to murder him five
times, angered by his conversion to Christianity.
In the wake of Sayeed Muhammad’s death, Asya
Muhammad’s grandparents called for her father to be
killed. External mediators later convinced the
grandparents that Asya Muhammad’s father had nothing
to do with his brother’s death, leading the elderly
couple to demand their granddaughter’s death and a
large sum instead.
Upon hearing these threats, Asya Muhammad’s parents
and siblings went into hiding. Her mother and three
younger brother’s have now returned home, though her
father continues to reside at an undisclosed
location.
Lawyer Al-Najar said that the family is no longer
afraid of being attacked. “But if Maria was released
from jail, she would be in danger, of course, and
she would have to live far from those terrorists
[her grandparents],” Al-Najar told Compass.
A Muslim cleric in Mosul, Asya Muhammad’s
grandfather attended the February 7 hearing with his
wife to testify against his granddaughter. The
elderly cleric was present last year when his
granddaughter grabbed a store knife and plunged it
into her uncle’s chest while he was tearing at her
hair.
Asya Muhammad’s lawyer said that if her appeal is
rejected, she will finish out her sentence in
Dohuk’s juvenile prison. Al-Najar described her
situation in jail as “good,” saying that she has the
opportunity to study and take computer courses.
But one Christian in Dohuk told Compass that Asya
Muhammad’s situation is far from ideal. As the only
female minor in the prison, the source said it was
uncertain whether jail officials would allow her to
attend classes at the all-male school.
compassdirect org
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