M A I N   N E W S

UAE Death Verdict
Sharjah-based firm to file appeal
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 5
Amid mounting concerns over the fate of 17 Indians who have been awarded death sentence for allegedly killing a Pakistani in the UAE, the government today engaged a Sharjah-based legal consultancy firm to start the process of filing an appeal on their behalf.

Official sources said Mohammed Salman Advocates and Legal Consultants, Sharjah, would file the appeal within this week. A representative of the consultancy firm would meet the 17 Indians, most of them hailing from Punjab, along with consulate officials at the Sharjah Central Prison in a couple of days.

The UAE Embassy here, meanwhile, assured that its legal system guaranteed a fair trial and the death sentence was subject to appeal. “Death penalty in the UAE legal system is subject to appeal and cessation by the rule of law without any interference from the parties,” the UAE mission said in a statement.

“We fully trust our legal system and its procedures and we are sure that it will provide and guarantee a fair trial to the convicted,” the embassy said. The court (in UAE) provides lawyers for those unable to get legal help themselves and gives them the right and the means to defend themselves in court, the statement said.

Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, who has been constantly monitoring the developments pertaining to the 17 Indians, welcomed the statement issued by the UAE Embassy and expressed confidence that justice would prevail.

“We respect the judicial system in the UAE…we have full faith in it,” she told The Tribune. She reassured the relatives of the Indians, currently lodged in a jail in Sharjah, that the government was committed to providing them all possible assistance.