Sharjah: The first hearing in the appeal against the death penalty awarded to two Kuwaitis for killing a fellow student has been postponed to January 6.
The hearing was scheduled for Thursday, but was postponed as the bench of judges hearing the case changed, Salem Obaid Bin Sahoo, the lawyer representing the victim’s family, told Gulf News.
On November 4, the Sharjah Sharia Court sentenced to death the two students who tortured the victim to death in February last year.
A third suspect was fined Dh1,000 in absentia for covering up the crime and failing to report it to authorities.
Mubarak Mesha’al Mubarak, 19, died at University City Hospital in Sharjah on February 24, 2013, following several days of physical abuse, police said. The victim’s family sought the death sentence for the suspects. They told Gulf News they would never pardon the killers.
The case opened at Sharjah Sharia Court on January 22 in a closed session.
Rashid Al Omrani, Attorney-General of Sharjah Prosecution, submitted three charges against the suspects: Deprivation of the victim’s freedom, torture and premeditated murder.
The two suspects sentenced to death, Shaikh Y.H.S., a member of the Kuwaiti ruling family, and H.A., 18, are being held at Sharjah’s Central Prison. The third suspect is missing.
Lawyers for the accused had asked the judge to summon witnesses in the case, including the man who filmed a video of the torture, and staff at the emergency section of University City Hospital in Sharjah, in addition to university cafeteria staff where the victim collapsed, Bin Sahoo told Gulf News.
“Two suspects confessed to their crime before the court and said that they tortured the victim for three days for allegedly harassing one of their female relatives,” official sources conducting the investigation told Gulf News.
It is understood that Mubarak was accused of harassing the sister of one of the three suspects and borrowed Dh100,000 from one of the suspects.
Authorities indicated this explained why Mubarak maintained his silence despite four days of torture and did not report the matter to police.
