\u00a0<\/h1>\n<\/hgroup>\n

The Daily Star (Lebanon)<\/p>\n

17 Aug 2016<\/time><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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BEIRUT: Activists and human rights groups staged a brief protest outside Beirut\u2019s Justice Palace in Adlieh Tuesday, demanding that a man convicted of beating his wife to death be given a longer sentence.<\/p>\n

The rally, organized by local NGO KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation, called for justice for Manal Assi and all women. \u201cHow can he be released after 18 months, as if he didn\u2019t do anything? This is my daughter,\u201d Nada Assi, Manal\u2019s mother, told reporters.<\/p>\n

Manal was killed in 2014 by her husband, Mohammad al-Nhaily. He was found guilty of bludgeoning Assi to death with a pressure cooker. Last month, Helene Iskandar, the presiding judge at the Beirut Criminal Court, reduced Nhaily\u2019s sentence from the death penalty to five years in prison, after factoring in the extreme state of rage he purportedly experienced at the time of the murder. Given Lebanon\u2019s ninemonth judicial year and factoring in time served, Nhaily will be released in a little over a year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

The sentence sparked an outcry from rights groups who described it as unacceptably lenient.<\/p>\n

Nada previously dropped her right to press charges against Manal\u2019s husband. She told Al-Jadeed that she did so due to pressure and fear for her children. However, she said: \u201cI will not remain silent before those who speak badly about my daughter and her honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iqbal Doughan, president of the Working Women League in Lebanon, read a statement on behalf of Lebanese women\u2019s rights organizations which stated that some men were \u201ccreative in creating means to murder women, and such a verdict was unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doughan added that Manal\u2019s case was a cause for all of society as well as future generations. \u201cThe right to live is a basic human right and we [women] have the right to hold onto it,\u201d Doughan said, asking whether the blood of Manal and other victims was so cheap as to warrant such light sentencing.<\/p>\n

KAFA released a statement on the case last week, noting that Tuesday was the first deadline to appeal the July 14 verdict. There is a second and final deadline next month. The group reported that the sentence was based on Article 252 of the penal code, which allows for reduced punishment if a crime occurred as a result of extreme rage caused by \u201cdangerous and wrongful action committed by the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to KAFA, Tuesday\u2019s deadline passed without any filing. Layla Awada, a lawyer with the group, said that with the first deadline passed, there is little hope that the prosecutor will file by next month. \u201cI do not know how much he will use that month to appeal, but we will see how it will work out,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi announced late last week that he had sent a memo to the office of the State Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, calling on it to appeal the decision if it saw legal reason to do so.<\/p>\n

The mother of Rola Yaacoub, another woman who was allegedly murdered by her husband, told reporters at the rally that \u201cour daughters have reached the grave because of taboos.\u201d Rola Yaacoub was found comatose at her home in Halba, Akkar, in 2014, and died on arrival at the local hospital.<\/p>\n

Some of Yaacoub\u2019s relatives and neighbors have maintained that her husband, Karam al-Bazzi, beat his wife and five daughters on a regular basis. They have been campaigning since her death to have him charged with murder. \u2013<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The article was taken from:\u00a0http:\/\/www.pressreader.com\/lebanon\/the-daily-star-lebanon\/20160817\/281621009738966<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 The Daily Star (Lebanon) 17 Aug 2016 BEIRUT: Activists and human rights groups staged a brief protest outside Beirut\u2019s Justice Palace in Adlieh Tuesday, demanding that a man convicted of beating his wife to death be given a longer sentence. The rally, organized by local NGO KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation, called for justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,60],"tags":[71],"class_list":{"0":"post-1329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-63","7":"category-60","8":"tag-71"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvaw-arabcoalition.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}