Qatar Upholds Verdicts in Murdered British Teacher Case

A Qatari court upheld today verdicts in the case of two men convicted in the murder of a British school teacher, Lauren Patterson.

Doha's Court of Appeal confirmed the convictions against Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah al-Jabar for murder and Mohamed Abdallah Hassan Abdul Aziz for helping to burn the 24-year-old's body and disposing of evidence. Both men are Qatari citizens.

Al Jabar has been sentenced to death and Aziz to three years in prison.

Although the death penalty is still handed down as a punishment in Qatar, it has been 12 years since the last execution took place and they are usually replaced by long prison sentences.

Patterson, from Kent in southern England, was murdered in October 2013 after leaving a nightclub in central Doha with a friend and the two convicted men.

She was sexually assaulted, stabbed and her remains burnt and found in a desert location outside the Qatari capital.

The two men were originally convicted in March last year.

However they appealed their conviction on the basis that they had been tortured by prison guards and held in solitary confinement.

Prosecutors had also argued for a longer sentence to be handed to Aziz.

Patterson's mother Alison had travelled from Britain to be in court to hear the final verdict and was accompanied by friends and former colleagues of her daughter.