UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. PAKISTANI SPARED FROM DEATH FOLLOWING PARDON BY VICTIM’S FAMILY

Pakistani national Akthar Hussain, 70, on death row in the UAE, was to walk out a free man after receiving a pardon from the family of his Indian victim. The family of P.T. Murrath, murdered during an attempted robbery in the UAE, pardoned Hussian who had been languishing on death row for more than two-and-a-half decades. Murrath, a 21 year old hotel employee in Al Ain, was murdered on July 30, 1980 by two men, later identified as Hussain, then 45, and Mustaq Sardar Khan, 17, who barged into his hotel with the intention of robbing the guests. Murrath resisted the men and was stabbed several times.
A court in the UAE sentenced Akthar Hussain to death. Mustaq was saved from the noose because he was a minor at the time of the crime but had his hands chopped off before being deported back to Pakistan. Since Murrath's family couldn't be traced, Hussain's sentence was inordinately delayed. According to Sharia law, only the King or the victim's family can pardon an offender.