'PA cancels leniency for honor killings'

Abbas orders "utmost punishment" for men who kill female relatives to protect their family's honor, Ma'an reports.

mahmoud abbas_311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
mahmoud abbas_311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the Palestinian judiciary on Friday to punish those who perpetrate honor killings, Ma'an reported.
Abbas's secretary-general At-Tayyib Abdul-Rahim reportedly announced on a Palestinian talk show that that Abbas ordered an amendment that would end leniency for men who killed female relatives to protect their family's honor, and sentence them with "utmost punishment."
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Nahid Abu T'eima, a Ma'an television producer and activist that had campaigned for such an amendment, reportedly burst into tears on air.
"This is a historical accomplishment to amend the 1960 penal law, which belongs in the dark ages," T'eima said, according to Ma'an.
In April 2010, Aya Barad'iyya was drowned by her uncle, who disapproved of a marriage proposal she had received. Her body was found one year later in a well near her home, stirring controversy amongst Palestinians.