ABU DHABI // The verdict of two Emiratis facing the death penalty for shooting an Omani during a hunting trip will be decided by the Sharia procedure of ‘Qasama’, the appeals court has ruled.
Qasama is way of adjudicating on first degree murder charges when there are only strong suspicions that the defendant committed the crime.
“But these suspicions do not reach the level of sufficient evidence,” explained the judge.
During Qasama, the victim’s heirs are asked to swear a religious oath a total of 50 times that they believe the defendant killed the victim.
They also have the choice of reverting the Qasama back to the defendant and making them take the oath 50 times that they did not commit it.
If they decline from either option then the case is dropped.
“Qasama happens when there is “lawth” (strong suspicion) in a murder,’ said the appeal court judge on Monday.
“For instance if the accused was found with a weapon in his hand and victim’s blood on his clothes but there were no witnesses or sufficient evidence that he committed the murder, just suspicions that he did.”
The judge further explained that there are three ways of upholding murder charges – the confession of the killer, witnesses to the crime or Qasama.
The 50 oaths are divided among the victim’s heirs. If there is only one heir then that person swears it 50 times.
The Qasama is held during a regular public court session and there are certain phrasings for the oath.
“If the heirs are present and ready by the next session then we will hold the Qasama right then and then book a date for the verdict,” said the judge.
The criminal court had previously convicted two of the defendants, cousins ND and MD and sentenced them to death. A third cousin, HD, was cleared of the murder.
As with all death sentences in the UAE, an automatic appeal was lodged at both the appeals court and the cassation court.
The case arose from a hunting trip in the Omani desert in January last year.
The defendants had taken their Toyota Land Cruiser to a remote part of the desert when a Toyota Hilux carrying Omani passengers began chasing them.
The passengers in the Hilux threw rocks at the Land Cruiser before one of them fired a pistol in the air.
The Emirati cousins fired a warning shot back at the Omanis. However, the shot hit one of the passengers in the head, killing him instantly.
The men in the Hilux denied they had a gun but admitted to hitting the Land Cruiser with rocks.
The criminal court also ordered the Land Cruiser be confiscated, while a a compensation law suit was referred to the civil court.
hdajani@thenational.ae
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6 UNDERGROUND
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco
2.5 / 5 stars
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
