Dubai/ Chandigarh, June 16 (IANS) A court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Wednesday adjourned till July 14 the hearing of appeals of 17 Indians who are on death row for killing a Pakistani.
The Sharjah court adjourned the hearing due to the unavailability of an interpreter to translate Arabic to Hindi, said Navkiran Singh, a representative of Punjab-based NGO Lawyers For Human Rights International (LFHRI), over the phone from Sharjah.
Singh, accompanied by LFHRI members, is in the UAE especially to attend the court hearing.
"There was no interpreter available to translate Arabic to Punjabi leading to the adjournment of the case. Lawyers representing the 17 Indians are trying to prove that they are innocent and should be acquitted," said Singh.
This is the second time that the hearing of appeal of the convicts has been postponed.
Sixteen men from Punjab and one from Haryana were sentenced to death by a Shariat court in Sharjah March 2010 for the murder of a Pakistani national after a fight over illegal liquor business. Three people were also injured in the scuffle.
The murder took place in Al Sajaa area of Sharjah. The victim, identified as Misri Nazir Khan, died of stab wounds, police said.
Ansar Burney Trust, run by Pakistan’s former federal minister for human rights Ansar Burney, has offered to pay the blood money to the family of the deceased in Pakistan.
"We are waiting for the court’s verdict. We will not let the Indians die at any cost and if the court does not provide them any relief then we will pay the blood money to save them. I am in touch with the deceased’s family and I have full sympathy with them," Burney told IANS over phone from Britain.
"The court had convicted the Indians on the basis of the statement of another Pakistani national Mushtaq. But when I talked to him, he said he did not identify any of the Indians. This can help us in proving the innocence of the Indians before the court."
All the convicted men are aged between 17 and 30 and belong to lower middle-class families.
The Indian consulate has hired a law firm in UAE to defend them.