The killer of a former school teacher could be set free “in months” as attempts to force a court to impose a harsher punishment have failed.
Then 24-year-old Lauren Patterson, from Kent, was found dead and badly burned in a desert in Qatar in October 2013. Patterson had been working at the Newton British School in the capital Doha before disappearing on a night out.
Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah Al-Jabr was later found guilty of stabbing the young woman. The murderer was initially sentenced to death - but his sentence was eventually reduced to a 10-year jail term.
An appeal against this decision has failed, and Miss Patterson’s mother said the killer could be set free in months. She added that there was a “possibility that he could stay in another four years, but there is also the possibility he could get off for good behaviour.”
“Also in Qatar, twice a year they pardon prisoners. So for example he could be pardoned this December on their national day. So he could be out within a couple of months.”
She was in favour of reverting the sentence back to the death penalty.
“The death sentence is something they haven’t enacted out there I think in 13 years, but I was far happier with that outcome, because then I knew he would remain in prison for life,” she said. “I feel sick, angry, but worst of all, I feel I’ve let my daughter down.”
Patterson had previously worked as a teaching assistant in Luxembourg.
