A court in the Arab state of Yemen has ruled that a Muslim man convicted of killing a Yemeni Jew was mentally incompetent and could therefore not be held fully responsible for his action. Retired Yemen air force pilot Abdul Aziz Yahya Hamoud al-Abdi, 39, must pay a fine of about US$ 250,000 for the murder of Moshe Yaish Nahari, a Hebrew teacher and father of nine, in December 2008. Abdi had shouted "I am not mad" in the courtroom after his attorneys presented an insanity defense. the same reason saved him from prison five years ago after he killed his wife.
Abdi told police that he had sent a message to Jews in the neighborhood that they should either convert to Islam or be killed. Following the murder, the Yemeni government in January paid to relocate the Jews living in Amran to the capital of Sana'a in order to better protect the community. Some Jews were refusing to move, according to a Yemeni news report. A few hundred Jews still live in Yemen.
