American challenges Oman death verdict

Forty-three-year-old Rebecca "Green" Thompson, convicted of murdering her husband Mark Lee Thompson, and sentenced to death, has challenged the Appeal Court's decision.

Said Al Sahary Law Office confirmed that it has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court on behalf of their client, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Three other defendants, including her son Derek Green and two Omanis, all minors, who pleaded guilty to having hit the deceased with an iron rod, were spared the death penalty.

The heirs of the deceased petitioned the court confirming their desire to waive the death penalty in favour of the two Omanis Qaiser bin Hilal bin Rashid Al Hosni and Adam bin Suleiman bin Jabir Al Jabri.

It is the firm's opinion that under Sharia law, this waiver cannot be restricted to some of the defendants but should be extended to include Rebecca.

"Once an heir waives the death penalty for an accused, the same waiver should be applied to the other co-accused," Medani Al Hussain, a lawyer from the firm, told Gulf News yesterday.

Said Bin Sa'ad Al Sahary, the principal of the firm and one of the three lawyers pleading the case, said: "There is a provision in the country's laws to challenge the Appeal Court's decision in the Supreme Court and we firmly believe that our client has a strong case against the judgement and in particular the death sentence."

Those who committed the crime were the two minor Omanis and Rebecca's teen-age son. Thus she was only an accomplice, the firm believes, that the death penalty against Rebecca could be overturned according to Sharia law.

The firm believes that under Article 110/2 of the Penal Code, the defendant is given the right of excuse or mitigation of punishment if the crime is committed under extreme emotional and physical provocation.

"We feel that in our client's case, the provocation was the result of accumulated emotional torture over the years," Medani said.

In her in-camera testimony, Rebecca accused her husband of sexual abuse since their marriage and cited an earlier stricture passed against the deceased in a US court before the couple arrived in Oman.

The US court had warned the deceased 'not to abuse the accused physically or by any means'.

Medani also said the defendant was not given the right to meet her lawyers in private and the privilege of client-lawyer privacy was not clearly understood or applied in this case.

"She has this right under the Omani legal system," he stressed, adding that it amounts to denial of proper defence.

Medani believes that Sharia will play a major role in their client's defence. "We are seeking to mitigate the death penalty to diya or imprisonment under Sharia law," he added.

Rebecca received the death sentence and her teenage son from a previous marriage to William Derek Green got a three-year suspended sentence for killing Mark Lee Thompson, who was battered to death.

The two hired Omanis were sentenced to 10 years in prison.