Gaza inequality: Woman sentenced to death by hanging for murdering husband, men who murder women receive reduced sentences
Headline: “Gaza: A women’s rights center demands to cancel the death sentence that was imposed on Nahla Abu Anza”
“The Center for Women’s Legal Research and Consulting [in Gaza] strongly condemned the death sentence that a court of first instance (i.e., a trial court where legal proceedings are begun) in Khan Yunis imposed on Oct. 5, [2016,] on Nahla Abu Anza, 26, a resident of the village of Abasan Al-Jadida, east of Khan Yunis, after she was convicted of the premeditated murder of her husband Riyad Abu Anza, 36. This is the first legal case of its kind in the last 20 years of the history of Palestinian law in which a death sentence by hanging is imposed on a woman.
The Center [for Women’s Legal] Research [and Consulting] raised many questions regarding imposing the death sentence on Nahla less than ten months after the crime took place, even while there are many crimes of murder that are committed against women under different pretexts that are delayed in the courts for years. Likewise, no death sentences were issued against those who perpetrated them, and a lightened sentence was imposed on the criminals on the claim of defending honor or accidental death during a familial dispute, or the punishment was cancelled in exchange for a payment of monetary compensation to the family of the victim. This is as happened at the start of the month (this December), when a court of first instance in Gaza imposed a punishment of (only) [parentheses in source] 5 years imprisonment on the convicted A.K. on charges of the premeditated murder of female civilian Suheir Abu Al-Kheir, the unintentional murder of civilian Mus’ab Azzam, causing great damage and destruction to the property of another, possession of a weapon without a license and under illegal circumstances, and threatening, cursing, and fighting in a public area. A lightened sentence for all of these crimes was justified through a reconciliation and waiver document from the family members of the victims.”
“The Center for Women’s Legal Research and Consulting [in Gaza] strongly condemned the death sentence that a court of first instance (i.e., a trial court where legal proceedings are begun) in Khan Yunis imposed on Oct. 5, [2016,] on Nahla Abu Anza, 26, a resident of the village of Abasan Al-Jadida, east of Khan Yunis, after she was convicted of the premeditated murder of her husband Riyad Abu Anza, 36. This is the first legal case of its kind in the last 20 years of the history of Palestinian law in which a death sentence by hanging is imposed on a woman.
The Center [for Women’s Legal] Research [and Consulting] raised many questions regarding imposing the death sentence on Nahla less than ten months after the crime took place, even while there are many crimes of murder that are committed against women under different pretexts that are delayed in the courts for years. Likewise, no death sentences were issued against those who perpetrated them, and a lightened sentence was imposed on the criminals on the claim of defending honor or accidental death during a familial dispute, or the punishment was cancelled in exchange for a payment of monetary compensation to the family of the victim. This is as happened at the start of the month (this December), when a court of first instance in Gaza imposed a punishment of (only) [parentheses in source] 5 years imprisonment on the convicted A.K. on charges of the premeditated murder of female civilian Suheir Abu Al-Kheir, the unintentional murder of civilian Mus’ab Azzam, causing great damage and destruction to the property of another, possession of a weapon without a license and under illegal circumstances, and threatening, cursing, and fighting in a public area. A lightened sentence for all of these crimes was justified through a reconciliation and waiver document from the family members of the victims.”