The United Arab Emirates executed a UAE woman on Monday who had been convicted of killing an American kindergarten teacher and trying to bomb an American-Egyptian doctor in militant-inspired attacks, the state news agency WAM reported. Ala'a Badr Abdullah al-Hashemi, 31, had also been found guilty of setting up a social media account to spread militant ideology with the aim of undermining the government, and of giving money to militant organisations for attacks, WAM said.
The report did not disclose how Hashemi was executed but Gulf News, quoting security officials, said she was shot by firing squad. Hashemi was sentenced to death on June 29 on terrorism charges for stabbing Romanian-born Ibolya Ryan, a mother of 11-year-old twins, in the toilet of an Abu Dhabi shopping mall on December 14 and for attempting to bomb an American-Egyptian doctor.
Hashemi placed a makeshift bomb outside the front door of the doctor's apartment hours after killing Ryan but the device was safely dismantled, according to evidence submitted at the trial. Police said last year that Hashemi had become radicalised over the internet and had not been targeting an American in particular but was looking for a foreigner to kill at random.