17 Indians on death row in Sharjah jail to go free

Seventeen Indians charged for the murder of a Pakistani are to go free following an out-of-court settlement on Wednesday.

The 17 Indian bootleggers were sentenced to death by a Shariah Court in Sharjah on March 18, 2010 in a war of turf with a Pakistani bootlegger.

An official statement from by the Indian Consulate General in Dubai confirmed that the two-and-half year old court case has been settled amicably and the family of the Pakistani national has agreed to pardon the accused and complete other formalities during the next court session on July 27, 2011.

According to Indian media reports, the accused will pay eight crore Pakistani rupees (Dh3.5 million) to the victim’s family..

Sharjah court was informed about the agreement reached between the two parties during the 15th hearing on Wednesday.

“The Honourable Judge Abdullah Al Shamsi took note of this important development and ruled that the Court would now convene on 27th July to receive the pardon papers and meet other formalities,” the Consulate said.

“This matter is now over. For an early resolution, the Honourable Sharjah Court of Appeals had earlier suggested a mutually agreeable understanding between the two sides. Such an agreement was also desired by the accused,” the Indian Consulate said.

“Guided by the same opinion, concerned members of the Indian community, led by SP Singh Oberoi, had independently contacted and pursued the possibility of a compromise with the family of the deceased,” it added.

The Indian government had engaged a local law firm Mohammad Salman Advocates and Legal Consultants to appeal the verdict and defend the accused.

The murder of the Pakistani national involved disputes over bootlegging in Sharjah industrial areas and Al Sajja area of Sharjah. The attack in January 2009 followed a fight over the control of the illegal liquor business in Al Sajaa area of Sharjah.

Judge Yousuf Al Hamadi sentenced the 17 men to death after evidences, including DNA tests, showed they had knifed the Pakistani to death. The victim died of his wounds after he was stabbed repeatedly on various parts of his body and had also suffered brain damage.

The convicted Indian men, aged between 17 and 30 years, will be free after the next court hearing. According to the three Pakistanis who survived, 50 people set upon them with knives on that fateful day last year.