Saudi King Reportedly to Free 2 Nurses
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LONDON — Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd has decided to commute the sentences of two British nurses convicted in the 1996 killing of a colleague there, the Saudi ambassador said Tuesday.
The king acted in response to a petition from the families of Deborah Parry and Lucille McLauchlan, Ghazi Algosaibi said in a statement.
The sentences were reduced to the time that the women have already spent in jail, about 1 1/2 years, and the nurses will return to Britain “in the next couple of days,” the statement said.
Parry, 39, was convicted of stabbing Australian nurse Yvonne Gilford, 55, to death. McLauchlan, 32, was found guilty of assisting in the killing and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Parry escaped beheading when Gilford’s brother waived the death penalty in exchange for a reported $1.2-million settlement.
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