TWO brothers have been jailed for life after stabbing their father’s lover in a planned ‘family honour’ attack at a hotel in Bahrain.
The Saudi defendants, aged 33 and 31, were arrested after they targeted the Tunisian woman in an elevator as she entered a hotel in Juffair in February last year.
She survived the knife attack despite being stabbed several times in the neck, head and back before being left for dead in the lift.
The brothers will spend 25 years behind bars after being convicted of attempted murder by the High Criminal Court yesterday.
They waited in ambush for the woman to enter the elevator on February 14, before one of them stabbed her several times using a medium-sized knife and the other drove the gateway vehicle.
The court heard that the vengeful siblings had earlier found out that their dad, a father-of-five, was cheating on their mother and planned to murder his lover, according to court documents.
The incident happened a month after one of the brothers, aged 31, threatened to kill the victim if she didn’t stop the affair but gave no clues to suggest he was related to the man she planned to marry.
Ignoring the threat, the couple carried on with the steamy clandestine love affair in Juffair.
The woman was stabbed more than five times and suffered bone fractures and wounds to her body before being rushed to Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC).
“The defendants have been found guilty of the charges due to sufficient evidence against them,” read the court ruling. “They planned to kill their victim after they learnt about her relationship with their father.
“They arrived in Bahrain a day before the incident. One travelled by plane, while the other drove his car across the King Fahad Causeway.”
The incident was caught on CCTV footage from the hotel’s surveillance cameras.
“The defendant (aged 31) wore the same clothes committing the crime as he did when he arrived at Bahrain International Airport,” added the ruling.
“He also wore a mask but his victim managed to see his face during the attack. The brothers were also caught red-handed on CCTV.”
The victim described how her lover was going to marry her a week after the incident.
“I never knew he was married or had children,” the 33-year-old woman told prosecutors. “I then saw a masked man stab me. I fainted and was rushed to hospital by my lover.”
Honour attacks are punishments on people, usually women, for acts deemed to have brought shame on their family name.
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