Kuwaiti convicts escape Sharjah gallows

Two Kuwaiti students studying in a Sharjah university escaped execution after a court of appeals in the emirate annulled a previous capital punishment sentence on Sunday.

The two defendants, identified as 19-year-old AS and HJ, 18, were sentenced to death early this year after they were convicted of killing another 19-year-old Mubarak, another Kuwaiti student in February 2013.

Trials had dragged on following rifts over proposed diya (blood money) to be paid by the killers to the victim’s relatives.

Newspapers quoted the victim’s lawyer Salim bin Sahouh as saying the court decided to abolish the execution sentence against the two convicts following persistent differences on diya. The papers did not make clear if the defendants, who were ordered deported from the UAE, would pay diya.

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