Moshe Ya'ish al-Nahari (Hebrew: משה יעיש אל נהרי Arabic: موشيه يعيش النهاري born 1978 – 11 December 2008) was a Yemeni Jewish Hebrew teacher and kosher butcher in Raydah, Yemen, who was murdered by a Yemeni Muslim who accosted him near his home demanding that he convert to Islam.
[1] Moshe Ya'ish al-Nahari, a 30-year-old father of nine, lived in the small Jewish community of Raydah, a market town in the Amran Governorate of northern Yemen.
[2] They had complained about threats received from groups of Islamic extremists previously and they subsequently asked for the protection of the Yemeni government.
[5] On 11 December 2008, Abdul Aziz Yahya Al-Abdi, a 39-year old former MiG-29 fighter pilot in the Yemeni Air Force, accosted al-Nahari in the market near his home demanding that he convert to Islam.
[7] Al-Abdi admitted in court that he killed al-Nahari "to get closer to Allah" saying that he had warned the Jews months ago either convert to Islam or leave the country.
[2] Attempting to avoid the death penalty, Khalid al-Shalali, one of Al-Abdi's lawyers, told the court that his client was mentally unfit and suffering from schizophrenia when the murder was committed.
The report, which recommended that he be committed to a mental hospital, noted that he had murdered his wife five years earlier,[5] but had avoided prison by paying her family compensation.
[5] These claims were seconded by the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, who represented Al-Nahari in court pro bono.
[2] When the verdict was read out, the dozen people present inside the small courtroom expressed relief, except for the victim's relatives.
The prosecuting lawyer, Khaled al-Ansi, said, ”The verdict is a big scandal” and “The trial was not fair, and was not secure, the Judge was afraid.
[10] In response to the court case, the Jewish community expressed their ordeal and how unsafe they felt after extremists had been sending them hate letters and threats by phone.