Qatari Given Death Sentence for Killing British Teacher

A Doha court on Thursday sentenced a Qatari national to death for the murder last year of 24-year-old British teacher Lauren Patterson, a judicial source said.

A second Qatari, Mohammed Hasan Abdulaziz, was given three years in prison for aiding the first convict, Badr Khamis Abdullah Hashim in "burning the body of Lauren Patterson and erasing evidence" of the murder, the source said.

The men were arrested after the teacher's charred remains were found by campers near Doha.

Patterson, who taught at a primary school in Doha, was last seen leaving the night club of a luxury hotel with two men, British media had reported. Her body was found soon afterwards.

In October, the interior ministry announced that Qatari security forces had made arrests over the murder, without giving details on the circumstances surrounding her death.

According to rights group Death Penalty Worldwide, the last judicial killing in Qatar was in 2003 when a murderer was executed by firing squad.