SHARJAH // The 17 Indians whose death sentences for killing a Pakistani man were commuted last week are not prepared to compensate the victim's relatives as part of a settlement proposal, their lawyers are saying.
The families of the defendants were not prepared to pay blood money to end the case when the men have not proven to have committed the crime, Mohammed Salman al Marzouqi, the spokesman of the four lawyers on the defence team, said yesterday.
"The families are arguing that paying the blood money would mean they accepted their guilt," he said. "They don't want to accept guilt for a crime they did not do."
The family representatives met with the Indian consulate yesterday and the diplomatic mission said that they should pursue the case to the end, Mr al Marzouqi said. The defence team will submit a rejection to the settlement proposal and wait to hear from the judge as how the case would proceed.
"We have all decided we are not paying any blood money," said Navikran Singh, the chairman of Lawyers for Human Rights International, an Indian organisation that has been active in the case. "Our lawyers are capable of proving the innocence of their clients and this is exactly what we want to do."
The accused were from poor families who could not afford to pay for the crimes they had not done, he said. Some family members have also said they were not in support of compensation.
"I know my brother is innocent and there is no point in paying the blood money," said Arjinder Singh, a Dubai resident whose brother is one of the accused. "I want the court to find those who are guilty to pay, but not my brother."
The defendants, 16 from the Punjab and one from Haryana, were given death sentences in March by a Sharjah court which found them guilty for the murder of a Misri Nazir Khan, a Pakistani national, near an industrial area as a result of a bootlegging dispute in January 2009.
Police said that about 50 people were arrested in connection with the case but through interrogations only 17 were charged for the fatal attack, in which the Pakistani man was stabbed repeatedly. Three other Pakistani men were injured in the attack.
The Sharjah Court of Appeals had on Thursday came up with a settlement deal to have the death sentence overturned. The family of the murdered man accepted the proposal. The next hearing is February 17.
ykakande@thenational.ae
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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