Posted on May 13, 2003 | by Staff

JIBLA, Yemen (BP)--The man accused of killing three Southern Baptist hospital workers has been sentenced to death, his lawyer told the Associated Press.

Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, 30, was sentenced to death May 10 for the shooting deaths of Baptist workers William Koehn of Kansas, Martha Myers of Alabama and Kathleen Gariety of Wisconsin Dec. 30 in Jibla, Yemen. A fourth worker, Don Caswell of Texas, was wounded.

The verdict was given in Jibla, the AP reported. Kamel will appeal, with his lawyer describing the verdict as violating Islamic law.

Yemeni officials believe that Kamel has ties to Al Qaeda, the AP reported.

In April Kamel told the court he killed the three workers because he believed they were trying to sterilize Muslim women and convert Muslims to Christianity. An International Mission Board spokesman later told Baptist Press that sterilization procedures would have been done solely with permission of both spouses.

Kamel also said he and another friend had agreed that he would "target Christians." The friend, Ali al-Jarallah, is charged with killing a policeman days before the three Baptist workers were murdered.
--30--