a 21-year-old Sri Lankan expatriate, identified as Venkadasalam Sudeshkar...

a 21-year-old Sri Lankan expatriate, identified as Venkadasalam Sudeshkar, was sentenced to death by a Doha Court of Appeals for killing his 27-year-old Indian co-worker. The victim’s family has agreed to accept blood money to be provided by the relatives of the guilty. The victim Arif Mohideen, from Karnataka in India, was reportedly having an affair with a relative of Sudeshkar, who was working in the same house. The Sri Lankan portal quoting a police report said Sudeshkar, armed with a knife, entered the house where Mohideen was employed and stabbed him. The Indian succumbed instantly. At the time Sudeshkar was only 21. Sudeshkar was indicted on charges of premeditated murder and a case was filed in a lower court in Doha. The State of Qatar provided Sudashkar with a lawyer for his defence and the panel of judges who heard the case awarded ‘life imprisonment’ to the Sri Lankan expatriate on 13 March 2012. After the lower court verdict, Sudeshkar’s counsel appealed. At the same time, prosecutors also filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal arguing that the victim was a Muslim and the case had to be tried under Shariah law, according to the portal. The Appeal Court awarded death sentence. Sudeshkar’s family had already made arrangements to pay blood money of QR100,000 to the victim’s kin in India, which they have agreed to accept for pardoning Sudeshkar. The victim’s brother Ameed Mohideen, also a resident of Doha, where he also works as a driver, has also contacted the Sri Lankan Embassy and conveyed his family’s decision to accept the blood money.