Mother's insistence exposed truth of Sana'a Ripper's crimes

The execution Wednesday of the so-called Sana'a Ripper would not have happened without the remarkable courage and tenacity of the family of Zainab Saud Aziz. From their home in Ras Al Khaimah Zainab's family lit the fuse of the bomb which eventually exploded in the faces of the Sana'a University authorities, revealing a mass murderer and a scandal over the sale of his victims' body parts.

When Sudanese Mohammed Adam Omar was shot five times through the heart in a public square in Sana'a his death closed a chapter which dominated the lives of Zainab's family since she disappeared in December 1999.

At first the family believed she had been kidnapped to stop her giving evidence to Sana'a University officials about a grade rigging racket. The belief that the 25-year-old student had been kidnapped was reinforced when her uncle Hassan Sabeeh Motlak went to Sana'a and disappeared shortly afterwards - also, it was said, a kidnap victim.

Throughout this time Motlak received frequent threatening phone calls telling him to stop his search or he would face the same fate as his niece. But it emerged later that Motlak had been arrested and held without charge in what the family claimed was an effort to stifle their own investigation into Zainab's disappearance.

Six weeks after she disappeared, rumours suggesting that Zainab had not been kidnapped began to surface. One said she had been raped and then killed, another that her body had been cut into pieces. The family began to speak of a plot by Yemen officials to sweep the matter under the carpet. They claimed that the police investigating Zainab's disappearance spun tales that she had been detained by Yemeni intelligence because she was involved in political activity.

When the family contacted the intelligence service they denied that they were holding Zainab. Then Zainab's file mysteriously disappeared from the university registrations and admissions department.

By March of last year, three months after she disappeared, Zainab's family began to fear the worst and that she would not be coming home. The family spoke of their "living hell" at not knowing what had happened to Zainab. "If Zainab is dead and they give us her body, we would be able to rest," one family member told Gulf News.

Throughout the ordeal, Zainab's mother Karimah Motlak refused to believe the official story of Zainab's abduction. In May last year it was her dogged determination and refusal to take "no" for an answer, when police questioned and then released the man who had stolen her daughter from her, that blew the lid off the tragedy.

From an early stage in the investigation Karimah's mother's instinct told her that the university medical faculty's morgue assistant was involved.

It was at her insistence that the police arrested and questioned Omar, only to release him and another Sudanese for lack of evidence. Undeterred, she then insisted that the police search the homes of the two men and also the university morgue.

Karimah recalled: "I had a strong feeling but no evidence. I was convinced that Omar was the kidnapper but how could I prove it?" Later her suspicions were fuelled by reports from some of Zainab's friends that she had been seen with Omar near the morgue shortly before she disappeared on December 13, 1999.

Once again she badgered the police into action, insisting they search the morgue again, this time more thoroughly.

What they found this time confirmed Karimah's worst fears. The police found the remains of several young women, including Zainab's and three other girls from the UAE, buried inside the morgue. Some had several body parts removed.

"I fainted and was taken to hospital when I learned of my daughter's fate. After that I cried for days," Karimah said at the time. "My only dream now is to see the body of Mohammed Adam chopped into pieces like he did to all those girls.

"I will dedicate my whole life to avenging my innocent daughter and the many other victims of this human monster."

Last November 28 Karimah's revenge was in sight. Omar was sentenced to die by firing squad for her daughter's murder. "It was the first time I had felt real joy since my daughter's death," she said. Several questions remain unanswered:

Why was her uncle imprisoned without charge until shortly before Zainab's body was discovered? Was it because someone feared he would uncover the truth?

Why have the Yemeni authorities been so reluctant to investigate claims of a body parts racket despite evidence supporting the claims? Who were the two mystery women who tried to poison Zainab's family during a visit to Sana'a and what was their connection to the case?

Why were the Yemeni authorities insistent that Zainab's remains be buried in Yemen and not in either the UAE or her home country, Iraq?

Finally, why did the Yemeni authorities refuse to hand over Zainab's body for almost 12 months, despite Omar's confession that he had killed her?

Until all these questions are answered it is unlikely that Zainab's family will know the full truth of her death.