How BARBARIC. Public beheading!

Saudis to lash Canadian teen, life spared

Sultan Kohail, 17, will also serve a year in prison; his older brother, Mohamed Kohail, 23, faces public beheading

Apr 05, 2008 01:38 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL–A Canadian teen charged in Saudi Arabia for the death of a man has reportedly been sentenced to one year in prison and 200 lashes.

Mahmoud Al-Ken, a reporter for a Montreal Arabic radio station, says the family of Sultan Kohail, told him the 17-year-old was sentenced earlier today.

Sultan and his brother Mohamed Kohail were detained in January 2007 after a schoolyard brawl in which a man died of internal injuries.

Mohamed Kohail, 23, was sentenced to death by public beheading.

Al-Ken says a different judge who presided over Sultan Kohail's trial permitted a "vigorous" cross-examination of the prosecution's witnesses, a key component he said Mohamed did not have in his case.

He says the family hopes the Saudi Arabian courts will allow a similar cross-examination for Mohamed Kohail's appeal.

The brothers maintain their innocence and both are appealing their sentences.

Al-Ken says the prosecutors asked for the death sentence in Sultan Kohail's case.

A third accused, a Jordanian national, was also sentenced to death.

Both brothers have been Canadian citizens since 2005 and lived in Montreal before returning to Saudi Arabia in 2006.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/410630