Wife’s killer sentenced to death despite family pardon

A court of appeals in Ras Al Khaimah sentenced an Arab man to death after he was convicted of killing his wife, despite a pardon by his children.

The court upheld a previous sentence by a court of first instance to execute the defendant after he was found guilty of axing his wife to death while their three children were at school. He told police he assaulted her after a heated argument at home.

Newspapers said the three children offered pardon for their father as the closest relatives of the victim but the judge rejected the pardon on the grounds it was a premeditated murder.

The unnamed defendant hit his wife with an axe many times and fled to Abu Dhabi, where he handed himself over to the police.