In the early morning hours on Friday 8 March 2013, Al Aqsa Hospital received the dead body of H.
S.
A, 23.
According to information available to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the woman was killed by her family on the grounds of “family honor”.
The police detained suspected persons and opened an investigation into the incident.
The Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns this crime and asserts that the leniency with which the authorities treat the perpetrators of such crimes—who usually allege that they were acting to preserve “family honor”— has contributed to a noticeable increase in what is known as “honor killings”.
Al Mezan unequivocally rejects any claims that such crimes are committed in order to preserve “family’s honor” since they will only allow murderers to escape judicial punishment.
Al Mezan calls on the authorities to treat all killings of women as prohibited crimes of murder and not to look beyond that for extenuating circumstances outside the law.
