UAE executes woman convicted in mall killing

The United Arab Emirates has executed the woman convicted of killing an American teacher at an upscale shopping mall in Abu Dhabi last year, state media reported Monday.

Alaa Al-Hashemi was convicted in June in the 2014 stabbing death of Ibolya Ryan in what authorities described as a terror attack, according to the state-run WAM news agency.

Surveillance video from the mall at Abu Dhabi’s Reem Island showed a veiled figure identified as the attacker walking into the center and later running to an elevator and leaving the mall. Her attire in the images earned her the nickname the “Reem Ghost.”

Ryan’s death in a mall bathroom came two months after the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi issued a statement warning U.S. citizens of an anonymous Internet post that encouraged attacks against teachers at American and other international schools.

In addition to Ryan’s murder, Al-Hashemi had been accused of making a bomb and planting it outside an apartment building, where it failed to explode, according to WAM.

Authorities also accused her of providing financial support to unspecified terror organizations and using email to “disseminate activities of the terrorist organizations,” the news agency reported.