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Pardon saves rapists from death sentence

SHARJAH — In a rare gesture, a Pakistani national, M.A., whose five-year-old daughter was raped and murdered five years ago in Sharjah, has pardoned the two accused, just in the nick of time on November 2, saving them from the jaws of death.

The two men — a UAE national and a stateless, sentenced to death for rape and murder in 2001 by Sharjah criminal court were pardoned by the victim's father just five minutes before the execution was to be carried out, a police source said.

According to the source, the father who is an Imam and preacher in a mosque in Al Dhaid District pardoned the two accused saving them from the gallows on the condition that they pay the diya, and accompany him for one year daily to help carry out the preaching at the mosque and spread Islamic teachings to the community.

The police source said that on November 2 at 5am when the prison authorities were about to carry out the execution in accordance with the ruling on the two men in 2001, the girl’s father entered the prosecution area and stopped the execution of the men.

The accused agreed to the Imam's condition and the death penalty ruling was cancelled. They were taken back to the central jail of Sharjah to enable them to pay the blood money and meet the other condition which demanded of them to accompany him to the mosque for daily preaching.

The two men had raped and murdered the Imam's daughter and threw her in a creek in Al Dhaid in Sharjah.

The girl identified as R. M was studying holy Quran in the mosque where her father served as Imam and preacher. The two men identified as J.M , 21-year-old UAE national, and M.K, a 22 year old Stateless, kidnapped the girl from near the mosque while going home and raped her in the car, and later threw her in the creek.

The parents of the girl initially did not realise their daughter was missing but later when they did not hear of her for a long time they reported the matter to the police.

The police finally found her body in the creek. The forensic report confirmed the act of raping and the killing the innocent victim.

Eyewitnesses provided the police with the car number plate of the accused. They were later arrested and confessed to the two crimes, raping and murdering. The two were sentenced by Sharjah criminal court to death in 2001.

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