M A I N   N E W S

Indians on death row
Appeal filed in UAE court
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 8
Thanks to the government’s initiative, an appeal has been filed in a Sharjah court on behalf of 17 Indians, who were recently sentenced to death in the emirate for killing a Pakistani national and injuring three of his compatriots.

Official sources said this was the first time that the Indian Government had formally approved legal aid to people involved in a legal offence in a foreign land.

“We will wait for the Sharjah court’s verdict on the appeal. There is a provision for second appeal also. Even thereafter, mercy petition could also be filed before the UAE President,’’ the sources added.

The appeal was filed in the Sharjah Court of Appeals by Mohammed Salman Advocates and Legal Consultants, which has been hired by the Indian Consulate in Dubai to represent the 17 Indians in the court.

Representatives of the legal firm as well the Indian Consulate met the Indians lodged in the Sharjah Central Prison. They are said to be in good health. They also maintained that they were innocent.

The convicted, 16 of them from Punjab and one from Haryana, were sentenced to death on March 29 by a Sharjah court for killing a Pakistani and injuring three others in January 2009 following a turf dispute between members of rival gangs that sell illegal liquor in and around labour areas.

These 17 were charged with committing the murder while many were let off due to lack of evidence.