Yemen executes man for rape, murder

Yemen today executed a Sudanese morgue worker who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering two female students at Sanaa…

Yemen today executed a Sudanese morgue worker who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering two female students at Sanaa University.

A police firing squad shot dead 52-year-old Mohammad Adam Omar, who has been dubbed in the local press as the "Sanaa Ripper", in a square near the university complex as thousands of Yemenis looked on.

The spectators included the families of the dead students, who were Yemeni and Iraqi nationals.

In November, a Yemeni court had sentenced Omar, a morgue worker at Sanaa University's medical school, to death for the murders.

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He was arrested in May on suspicion of raping and killing 16 women after the bodies of 21 female students were found buried on campus or hidden in the university's sewers.

Omar initially confessed to all the murders but later retracted his statement, saying he had only killed two.

Today's execution raised to 11 the number of convicts executed in Yemen so far this year.