Abu Dhabi: An Indian family has approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Delhi and the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi seeking help to repeal a death penalty handed to their kin by the Appeals Court in Abu Dhabi.
Charavattayi Krishnan Becks, 37, has been sentenced to face the firing squad on charges of pre-meditated murder of an eight-year-old Sudanese boy.
As per the case file, Becks who works as a driver, was playing on his laptop sitting in his car near a kerb close to his house in Mussafah on September 14, 2012. Some children who were playing in the area kept disturbing him by knocking on the window. They also threw stones and paper at the accused when he rolled down the window. An irate Becks drove off to a parking lot a few metres away where he ran over the victim.
The public prosecutor who appeared for the victim’s family had argued that the accused was chasing the boys in a fit of rage and drove his car over the boy with the intention of killing him.
Beck’s lawyer defended him arguing it was an accident caused when the victim jumped across the vehicle from behind a transformer.
Court verdict
But the Court of First Instance found Becks guilty and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. The court also ordered the culprit to pay the boy’s family Dh200,000 as blood money.
When the case was brought before the Appeals Court, it upheld the verdict. The victim’s family approached the Court of Cassation, which again referred the case back to the Appeals Court for retrial. Becks was sentenced to death by firing squad at the retrial by the Appeals Court, which was once again upheld by the Court of Cassation.
Lawyers representing Becks told XPRESS they have filed a review petition of the death penalty on the grounds that the second verdict by the Appeals Court was given by the same panel of judges who gave the first verdict.
“As per the UAE laws, a different panel of judges should hear the review petition when it is referred for a second time to the Appeals Court,” said the legal source.
Krishnan Binson, brother of the accused, told XPRESS that their family in India does not know Becks has been awarded death penalty. “I cannot tell his wife and his four-year-old son. We are just hopeful because my brother is not a murderer,” said Binson, who works in a shipping company in Abu Dhabi.
An Indian embassy official said the petition submitted by the family has been forwarded to the UAE authorities. “The role of the embassy is to forward the petition to the local authorities. We do not interfere in the judicial procedures of the host country. Nor do we judge the merits or demerits of the case,” said the embassy official.
