Death sentence for murder plot pair in Oman

Energy Saturday 23/June/2018 22:39 PM
By: Times News Service
Death sentence for murder plot pair in Oman

Muscat: An Omani woman and her accomplice have been sentenced to death for murdering her husband, the Public Prosecution announced.
The court sentenced the woman, who is in her 40s, and her lover, a fellow Omani in his 50s, to death for the premeditated murder of her husband.
On May 15, 2016, the woman agreed with her lover to murder her husband.
The accused bought ammunition, with the help of the victim’s wife, to commit the murder.
“They took advantage of the fact that an adjacent house, where the victim’s sons were living, was empty. The wife then guided her lover to the place where her husband would be inside the house so he could shoot him. Late at night, the lover jumped over the wall and shot him in the neck with one bullet,” the Public Prosecution’s report read. His wife watched as her husband was dying, according to officials.
“After committing the murder, the accused carried his body in a vehicle to get rid of it. They threw the body in one of the wadis, where they suspected other residents would not be able to find it. They then returned to the house to clean up the victim’s blood. The next day, the victim’s wife pretended to be searching for her husband, claiming that he had disappeared the night before. She even helped search for him, alongside other residents.
“After the ‘disappearance’ was reported to the Royal Oman Police (ROP), an intensive search was conducted and the body was found at the brink of a wadi after two days.” the report said.
A crime scene investigative team was dispatched to the site and sent the body to the forensic department for further investigation. The forensic report showed that there was a fracture in the victim’s neck, caused by the bullet fragments that remained in his body, revealing the fact that the victim had, indeed, been murdered,” the report continued.
Once the ROP presented their evidence and questions to the wife, she admitted the crime and told police what had really happened.
An official at the Prosecution told the Times of Oman that the death penalty is very rare in Oman, as there are few murder crimes committed that are premeditated. “There have been few death sentences in the past, though most are due to premeditated murder and drug-related crimes,” he said.
The new Penal Code was brought into force in January by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, when he signed Royal Decree Number 7/2018 after it was ratified by the Council of Oman
The newly introduced Oman Penal Code also protects the civil liberties of residents in the country by providing imprisonment of not less than three months, and not exceeding three years, for anyone who arrests a person, hinders or deprives a person of his liberty by any means contrary to the law.
In addition, the new code states that those who are found guilty of kidnapping could be imprisoned for up to seven years.
Also, any person who kills a public official who is performing his duty shall be sentenced to death, which can be replaced by imprisonment if he is pardoned by the victim’s parents or blood relatives.