Three-year-old's father 'relieved' after rapist was publicly executed in Yemen

A doll is seen in the backyard of the mobile home where three children and their mother were found hanged in Hudson Oaks, Texas May 29, 2007. Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

A 41-year-old man who raped and murdered a three-year-old girl was publicly executed in Yemen on Monday. Muhammad al-Maghrabi was shot to death with a machine gun for the June 25 rape and murder by a court run by the Shiite Huthi rebels. After the execution, Yahya al-Matari, the father of the victim, told reporters that he was “relieved.”

Warning: Disturbing content

Thousands of people gathered in the capital of Sanaa to witness the sentence, the first public execution in the area since 2009. Photos show Maghrabi laying on the floor, his hands bound behind his back.

First, he was given 100 lashes. Maghrabi was laid down on a rug with his face on the ground. Then he was shot through the back.

The guilty man was escorted through the square by military guards prior to his sentence. He was brought by a prison van, which was escorted by five police patrol vehicles. Police said they accompanied Maghrabi to Tahrir square where he was sentenced due to chances the angry crowd might lynch him.

Reuters photographer Khaled Abdullah, who witnessed the execution, said that security was tight. Authorities specifically feared a revenge attack by armed men from the Bani Matar tribe, to which the girl's family belong.

The sentence was broadcasted across the country. It was aired on Huthi-run media in Yemen, framed as an example of how the Shiite rebels combat crime.

Some watching the scene in person filmed the execution on their phones. "The man was escorted from the van to the middle of the square, and then the place turned to a complete chaos and I fought for a position to take pictures," Abdullah said, according to Reuters.

Based on a US State Department report, sharia law is the source of all legislation in Yemen. Under the law, murder is punishable by death sentence. The crime coincided with the first day of Eid al-Fitr, causing anger among the Muslim population.

The Iran-backed Huthis have been locked in war with the Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi for two years. Over 8,000 people have lost their lives. Many were displaced in the conflict.

Yemen was described by the United Nations as “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.” At least 10 million civilians were reportedly in acute need of lifesaving aid as the country reels on the edge of famine. Since April, 2,000 have died of cholera.

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