Confession not enough for conviction: Court

Confession to police and prosecutors is not enough to convict a defendant, especially in cases of capital punishment, the Federal Supreme Court has ruled. The ruling in the case of two Bangladeshis, who were charged with the murder of an Emirati man, sets a legal precedent obliging judges to rely less on a defendant’s confession to police or public prosecutors, according to the presiding judges, particularly if it contradicts forensic evidence. A judge should not issue a conviction unless there is sufficient evidence supported by several facts, according to court documents issued on Wednesday, reported The National. The precedent, according to Justice Ahmed Abdulhameed, one of the judges, abrogated the old adage that “confession is the best evidence”. Rulings issued by the Supreme Court are binding and local judges should follow them if the case is similar. The court also ruled a judge’s collection of evidence that could have previously formulated their judgement should be discarded if any of them proved to be wrong. On March 29, 2006, Sharjah prosecutors charged SA and AD, from Bangladesh, with premeditated murder after they allegedly kidnapped an elderly Emirati man, identified as RK, and threw him into a manhole with the intent to kill him. The Sharjah Criminal Court issued a unanimous ruling convicting SA of murder and sentenced him to death. AD was acquitted. The Sharjah Court of Appeals upheld the verdicts. Both SA and prosecutors then appealed at the Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi. SA argued that the court convicted him relying solely on his confessions to police. He said the confession was taken under duress. Judges presiding on the case at the Supreme Court said that the lower courts committed a “grave error” by ignoring a conflict between the defendants’ confessions to police and the forensic report. Forensic tests showed the victim died in his bed of suffocation rather than drowning in a manhole. It was not known who suffocated the man in his bed before the two men allegedly threw him in the manhole. The Supreme Court ordered a new investigation into the case before returning the case to the Sharjah Court of Appeals to be tried under a new panel.