After being accused of atheism for blasphemous Facebook posts, Bataweel was abducted from in front of his home in Aden on a Sunday evening. He was found dead, with a bullet in his head, the following day.
Omar Mohammad Batawil was a resident of the Yemeni city of Aden. He had apparently posted comments on Facebook criticizing religion, which led him to receive threats of violence and murder. On a night of April 2016, as he stood outside his home, unidentified kidnappers took him. The following day, his body was found in another district of the city. He was dead of gunshot wounds.
Among the Facebook posts offensive enough to earn him execution, one, in the form of a poem, read as follows:
"They accuse me of atheism! / Oh you people, I see God in the flowers, / And you see Him in the graveyards, / That is the difference between me and you."
Atheist Youth in Yemen Shot to Death by Islamist Radicals - Atheist Republic
Omar Mohammed Batawil: Yemeni youth accused of atheism shot dead - Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
The internationally-recognized Yemeni government currently controls only part of the nation; an uprising led by the Houthis captured much of the country, including its capital, in 2014. In Houthi territory, religious minorities can reportedly face brutal repression and reprisals. Under the legislation of the internationally-recognized government, meanwhile, blasphemy is punishable with imprisonment and apostasy with death. The population is almost entirely Muslim and the state's official religion is Islam, with much legislation, including the apostasy law, taking direct inspiration from Islamic religious law—as prescribed by the constitution.