{"id":27723,"date":"2024-05-16T08:21:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=27723"},"modified":"2024-05-16T08:21:50","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:21:50","slug":"race-to-raise-blood-money-to-halt-an-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/05\/16\/race-to-raise-blood-money-to-halt-an-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"Race to raise ‘blood money’ to halt an execution"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Kenyan mother, who has led a long and desperate campaign to save her son from execution in Saudi Arabia, was weak with relief when he was granted a temporary reprieve this week.<\/b><\/p>\n

Stephen Munyakho, 50, was due to be executed on Wednesday for the murder of a Yemeni man in 2011. It could have been carried out by decapitation – beheading is the most common method in the kingdom – or by hanging, lethal injection or firing squad.<\/p>\n

But his stay of execution is only temporary – and Dorothy Kweyu, 73, has told the BBC she has not yet been given any further details about her son\u2019s case by Kenya\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n

It means her anxiety has not eased. She is still trying to raise the \u201cdiyah\u201d or blood money that under the Islamic legal system, known as Sharia, would secure a pardon from the victim\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state and its judicial system is based on Sharia for both criminal and civil cases.<\/p>\n

A public appeal has so far raised less than 5% of the required $1m (\u00a3790,000) needed, says Ms Kweyu, a respected journalist in Kenya.<\/p>\n

Getting more time to raise the money may be what Kenyan government officials, negotiating on Ms Kweyu\u2019s behalf, are hoping will be the way forward.<\/p>\n

Announcing the execution\u2019s delay on Monday, Korir Sing’Oei, a senior official in the foreign ministry, said negotiators were devising \u201cstrategies to bring this matter to a more acceptable conclusion, and thereby giving both families the closure they so urgently need and deserve\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Munyakho, known as Stevo to his friends and family, went to work in Saudi Arabia in his early 20s and 13 years ago was a warehouse manager at a Red Sea tourist resort.<\/p>\n

According to Ms Kweyu, her son got into a dispute with a colleague, who she said stabbed Stevo with a letter opener.<\/p>\n

Stevo retaliated by grabbing the letter opener and attacked his work mate, leading to his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, my son was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in jail,\u201d she told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected him to be inside for two-and-a-half years, in accordance with international norms – but it was not to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

But an appeal was heard in 2014 that changed the sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court ordered that my son face capital punishment, which would have meant the death sentence,\u201d Ms Kweyu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on, however the family of the deceased was convinced by a Kenyan delegation in Saudi to take the diya offer of blood money.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the negotiations have proved long and difficult – and raising the money for Stevo, who has three children, has not been easy.<\/p>\n

A court had set 15 May as the deadline for the blood money to be paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I asked: \u2018Is there a way we can exchange, so that they execute me instead of Steve my son?\u2019 But I was rebuked and told to stop talking like that,\u201d Ms Kweyu said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dorothy<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
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Dorothy Kweyu surrounded in 2002 by her nine children – Stephen Munyakho can be seen in glasses in the back row (Image: Dorothy Kweyu)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Under Islamic law, diyah compensates a victim or their family. It can be paid for a variety of crimes from murder to injury and damage to property.<\/p>\n

It can lead to a reduction in sentence and in certain circumstances a pardon. It is currently applied in about 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Sudan and northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n

The Quran, the Muslim holy book, supports the paying of blood money – and this was further clarified by the Prophet Muhammad, who explained in his teachings that the price for murder or manslaughter should be 100 camels.<\/p>\n

Modern interpretations mean this amount differs in different countries as diyah is now usually paid in cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Saudi Arabia one camel is on average 30,000 Saudi riyals [$8,000, \u00a36,300] thus if anybody is going to pay for the life of someone, they have to pay at least $800,000,\u201d Nigerian Islamic scholar Sheikh Husseini Zakaria told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Other factors, such as a victim\u2019s gender and religious background, can also determine the amount of blood money demanded. It also needs the agreement of the victim or their family.<\/p>\n

Ms Kweyu says she was first asked to pay about $2.6m, but successfully negotiated it down to $950,000.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if Stevo has changed his religion while in prison. In Mr Sing’Oei\u2019s statement posted on X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>, he noted that Stephen Munyakho was now known as \u201cAbdulkareem\u201d.<\/p>\n

The name change was news to his family, who are able to occasionally communicate with him when he phones them from prison.<\/p>\n

It has been hard for his children. His youngest, 23-year-old Evans Mwanze, has not seen him for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times I am hopeful that my dad will come home,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther times I get discouraged and wonder if the worst may happen. I never got to know my dad. He left when I was three and that was the last I saw of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Kweyu says the prospect of beheading is all too real. Last year, there were 172 executions in Saudi Arabia, according to figures released by the authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a day my son called me and told me that one of his friends had been beheaded. That was such a dark moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saudi authorities have not responded to BBC requests for comment, but the Kenyan government has been effusive in its thanks for their help in this case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shall continue to lean on the warm and solid friendship that we have with our Saudi partners,\u201d Mr Sing’Oei said, promising further negotiations would happen in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shall be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including representations from our religious leadership, to agree on the next urgent step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Kenyan mother, who has led a long and desperate campaign to save her son from execution in Saudi Arabia, was weak with relief when he was granted a temporary reprieve this week. Stephen Munyakho, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,109,2,6],"tags":[4375,10360,10358,10359,9,3493,6346,1160,116,1447],"class_list":{"0":"post-27723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"category-headline","9":"category-news","10":"category-world","11":"tag-beheading","12":"tag-blood-money","13":"tag-decapitation","14":"tag-diyah","15":"tag-execution","16":"tag-firing-squad","17":"tag-hanging","18":"tag-kenya","19":"tag-lethal-injection","20":"tag-saudi-arabia","21":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27726,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27723\/revisions\/27726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}