UAE. MAN ESCAPES DEATH PENALTY, TO PAY BLOOD MONEY

it was reported that an Iraqi man who murdered a Saudi for attempting to sexually abuse his wife escaped death penalty when the father of the victim accepted diya (blood money) as per Sharia Law. The Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi, UAE, ordered the defendant to pay Dh200,000 diya to the heirs of the deceased. The case, in which the final verdict was issued on September 25, dated back to April 29, 2002, when the public prosecution accused Mohammed Shaker of premeditated murder for killing Khalid Manookh, a Saudi. Shaker had stabbed Manookh to death after the latter tried to sexually abuse his wife who worked in a brothel, the court heard. The Court of Appeal announced on March 29, 2004, that the death penalty had been commuted following the payment of blood money. The convicted man was ordered to pay the money to the heirs of the deceased and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment which was later commuted by the apex court into 100 lashes and 3 years in prison.