Appeal accepted, but Kohail's fate remains unclear

Mohamed Kohail, 23, the former Dollard des Ormeaux resident now facing a death sentence by decapitation in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, has successfully filed an appeal request, but that does not mean he is out of the woods yet.

"Mohamed's appeal was accepted yesterday," Kohail's long-time friend and an advocate for getting him back to Canada, Mahmoud Al-Ken, 23, told <@Ri>The Chronicle<@4p>. However, due to the particularities of the court system there, the appeal is "non-binding," he said, which means it is not clear whether or not Kohail will actually get the chance for a retrial.

If a retrial does occur, one unsavoury possibility is the death sentence's replacement by a lifetime of jail, which Al-Ken said is not desirable either. "That's something we don't want to happen," he said.

Meanwhile, Mohamed's younger brother, Sultan, 18, is in danger of facing the death penalty as well. Previously under-age, Sultan was tried in the youth court, where he wound up sentenced to 200 lashes and a year in jail. Sultan had tried to appeal the sentence, but his appeal was rejected.

"The death penalty may be applied (to Sultan)," said Al-Ken, explaining he will be retried as an adult in the Saudi general court now, rather than the youth court.

The Kohail brothers are Canadian citizens of Palestinian origin who moved to Canada from Saudi Arabia with their parents in 2000, settling at a home in Dollard des Ormeaux. They moved back temporarily two years ago, in order to be with a sick relative and attend their sister's wedding, according to family friends.

Their troubles began at a schoolyard brawl in January 2007 when Mohamed and a group of friends allegedly came to the rescue of his younger brother who had been threatened by a Syrian youth, Munzer Haraki, 19, and his own friends. In the ensuing fight, Haraki was fatally wounded and Mohamed and Sultan were both charged with his murder. Mohamed received the death sentence in March 2008, but witness testimony gathered by his father, Ali Kohail, was used in an appeal process to prove he and his brother were not even near Haraki when a fence reportedly collapsed on him and killed him, according to Al-Ken.

Last week, Barry Gaiptman, a councillor at Cartier adult education centre in Beaconsfield, which Kohail attended when he was in Canada, told The Chronicle the school is not giving up on their effort to have a fair trial for the young men. As the new school year begins, Gaiptman said he was planning an awareness campaign about the two brothers.

Pierrefonds-Dollard Liberal MP Bernard Patry, who helped deposit a petition prepared by Gaiptman and his students to Parliament last June, said the Conservative government is not doing enough to help out the Kohails. "All the Canadian government did, all they said, was a brief visit by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who briefly saw some authorities involved," he said.

Day stopped in Saudi Arabia in March, about two weeks after Mohamed was handed his death sentence, as part of a larger tour of the Middle East.

However, the Foreign Affairs Ministry shrugged off such criticism. "Canada has, and continues to pursue all avenues to save Mohamed Kohail," said spokesperson Sean Sinclair, adding Canadian embassy officials are constantly in touch with Saudi authorities as well as the Kohails and their legal team. The sensitive nature of the case, as well as the law, forbid the department from revealing more information, he said.

Chronicle, courtesy photo