Abu Dhabi: The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi is providing consular assistance to 10 young Indian men who have been sentenced to death by an Al Ain court for the murder of a Pakistani man, a senior official told Gulf News on Wednesday.

“We were informed by the local authorities that a lower court issued the death sentence early this month and the accused youth filed an appeal against the verdict at a higher court,” said Dinesh Kumar, Counsellor Community Welfare at the embassy.

The murder allegedly occurred during a brawl over bootlegging in Al Ain in December last year. Eleven men from the Indian state of Punjab were convicted in the case but one was spared the death sentence.

Kumar said he had visited the men in Al Ain jail a few months back along with his team as part of providing consular assistance to the prisoners with the approval of local authorities. “We gave them financial assistance to buy telephone cards. Therefore they can keep in touch with their families in India,” he said.

The official said the embassy has not obtained the copy of the lower court judgement.

“We are also waiting for the appeal court proceedings.”

He said the men themselves have filed the appeal and the embassy was not involved in the legal process.

Apart from possible relief through appeal at the higher court, a pardon from the Pakistani victim’s family can also save the men from the death sentence, Kumar said.

If a pardon is granted, all eleven accused will have to pay Dh200,000 in blood money to the victim’s family according to UAE laws, he said.

However, the official was not aware of efforts to reach the Pakistani victim’s family to secure a pardon.

Indian media reports from Punjab said all the convicted young men were from poor families and worked in Al Ain as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and masons.

A 24-year old man’s wife from Nawan Shahr district told the Indian Express newspaper that her husband had reached the UAE just 15 days before the incident. He had left India just three months after his marriage.

Most of them in their twenties had paid huge sums to recruitment agents in India to secure a visa to reach the UAE, the report said.