According to a verdict on Thursday, a court in Abu Dhabi has commuted the death sentence to 10 Indian men for murdering a Pakistani man in 2015 following a feud over bootlegging.
10 Indian men who were facing execution in the UAE from Punjab will now serve jail terms ranging from one to three and a half years, Gulf News reported.
The ten men, from Punjab, were sentenced to death in October last year.
The men under question were convicted in October 2016 for killing Mohammad Farhan during a brawl over bootlegging in 2015. Eleven men were convicted in the case but later one of them was spared the death sentence. All the convicted Indian men were from poor families and worked in the United Arab Emirates’ Al Ain city as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and masons, said the report.
Indian charity organisation Sarbat Da Bhala, run by Dubai-based Indian businessman SPS Oberoi, had paid blood money as compensation to victim Mohammad Farhan’s family and they agreed to pardon the Indian men.
With the decision, Dinesh Kumar, first secretary for community affairs at the Indian Embassy, said that the verdict is a relief to the accused, who have been in jail since July 2015 and were sentenced to death in October 2016, and their families.
“We are grateful to the courts for this decision, and to the victim’s family, who agreed to pardon these young men. [What transpired in 2015] is indeed unfortunate, but these men hail from poor families that need their support,” he said.
