Kenyan security guard jailed for life in Qatar for murder of American teacher
The director of a Chinese company involved in a dispute over ownership of a Sh200 million plot of land in Kilimani, Nairobi has declared that he had no intention of fleeing the country as he had vast business interests locally. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Alvine Moseti Anyona is expected to serve up to 20 years — a typical period for those sentenced to life in the Gulf state.
- Brown, 40, was murdered in her company-provided home in November 2012.
- The court had offered her family the option to choose the death penalty as a punishment but they declined, saying they were "not cruel".
- The case has moved slowly through the Qatari legal system and was adjourned several times.
DOHA
A Kenyan security guard was on Tuesday sentenced to life in prison by a Qatari court for the murder of American teacher Jennifer Brown in 2012.
Alvine Moseti Anyona is expected to serve up to 20 years — a typical period for those sentenced to life in the Gulf state — and will then be immediately deported.
The court had offered Brown's Pennsylvania-based family the option to choose the death penalty as a punishment but they declined, saying they were "not cruel".
Brown, 40, was murdered in her company-provided home in November 2012.
She had arrived in energy-rich Qatar only two months earlier to teach at the English Modern School in the city of Al-Wakrah.
Anyona, who is married and has a young daughter, confessed to the murder.
But a friend of the defendant who was in court on Tuesday and wished to remain anonymous said that the Kenyan would appeal the verdict.
"He told me he was beaten and he had to admit it. He confessed under duress," said the friend.
Anyona was not in the courtroom to hear the verdict.
The case has moved slowly through the Qatari legal system and was adjourned several times.
It was one of two high-profile murder cases involving foreign teachers that have recently passed through the Qatari legal system.
In March, Qatar's Court of Appeal upheld a death sentence against a local man convicted of the 2013 murder of British school teacher Lauren Patterson.
