The family of Sana'a Ripper victim Zainab Saud Aziz is furious that they were not invited to witness the execution of her killer, Mohammed Adam Omar, and they suspect that he has not been executed at all.

Zainab's mother, Karimah Motlak, said she was upset that she had not been able to watch her daughter's murderer die. "I have been killed three times: first when my only daughter was kidnapped from her university, second when Zainab's body was cut into pieces by Omar, and now finally by the Yemeni authorities."

She said that she had demanded the right to execute Omar with her own hands, but the Yemeni authorities had turned her down. "It was only my feeling which led the whole world and the Yemeni authorities to this serial killer, and now I feel that Omar is still alive. Because I did not see him die, I do not believe that he was executed."

Zainab's uncle, Hassan Sabeeh Motlak, said the moment they received the news on Tuesday that Omar was to be executed, they asked officials to postpone the execution for a few hours so that they could go to Yemen and attend the execution.

However, they were told that the execution would not be postponed under any circumstances. He said Yemeni officials had deprived the family of its basic right to attend the execution, even though the Yemeni Constitution granted the right of the victim's family to attend.

When the family contacted Yemeni officials, they were told that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had ordered Omar's execution without delay during a visit this week to the prison of the Central Guards Unit where Zainab's killer was being held.

He noted that the family had waited almost two years for the execution, but the Yemeni authorities had disappointed them. Instead, they promised to provide the family with a video cassette of the execution.

Motlak said that a request from the family to view Omar's body after the execution had also been turned down. A request that a mobile phone be put to Omar's head before he was executed, so they could hear his voice and ensure it was him, was also refused.

Officials also refused to tell the family where Omar was to be buried. These refusals, coupled with the failure to invite them to the execution, made him suspect that Omar had not been executed at all. He claimed that a Sudanese officer from the Sudan Liberation Army, Romil Jonet So, had been executed in Omar's place.

He did not say why he believed Omar had not been executed, but he plans to go to Yemen with his brother Falah today in an effort to prove that his niece's killer is still alive.