This had led, just a few days before Batto Sfez's arrest, to the unpopular execution of the Muslim.[11] As a result, his representations to the Bey on behalf of his employee were unsuccessful, and instead he sought support from the French and British consuls. However Muhammad Bey issued the execution order the same day that the court issued a guilty verdict, and Sfez was summarily beheaded on 24 June 1857.[12] His head was then kicked through the city and then smashed with stones[13] and the authorities refused to release his body for proper Jewish burial.[14]