Woman convicted of killing stepdaughter loses appeal

A Yemeni woman convicted of torturing her nine-year-old stepdaughter to death has had her appeal declined by the High Appeals Court. The woman was earlier sentenced to seven years behind bars for committing the crime.

The sentence handed down to the Yemeni woman was the maximum punishment for the charge of death caused by beating. Nine-year-old Zahra Al Hasisi was pronounced dead at the King Hamad University Hospital on July 30 last year after suffering internal bleeding caused by a brutal assault.

She also had injuries that suggested she had suffered years of abuse, including burns to her back and neck. The medical examiner who carried out Zahra’s autopsy previously revealed horrific details of the abuse in court, saying that the injuries the child suffered suggested she endured years of mistreatment.

Zahra lived with her father, stepmother, three siblings and two step-siblings at an apartment in Hidd since 2013 after the father was granted custody by a Yemeni court.