Killer caught between pardon and death

An Arab man who murdered his wife in Abu Dhabi is facing both pardon and death sentence after one relative decided to forgive him and another insisted on his execution, press reports said on Wednesday.

The unnamed defendant stabbed his wife seven times last year following a heated argument at their house in Musaffah just outside Abu Dhabi city. He had told court that the argument was triggered by her suspicious behavior and that she tried first to kill him by pulling a knife.

As his wife’s first relative, his own son, is still a baby, not exceeding three months at the time of the murder, the court named his grandfather, the defendant’s father, as the baby’s client.

“The grandfather told court he pardoned his son but the victim’s daughter from a previous husband refused to pardon him and insisted on his execution,” the semi official Alittihad newspaper reported after Tuesday’s trial.

Under Islamic law, a killer can be saved from execution and freed in case of a pardon by all the victim’s relatives in return for diya (blood money).

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