Dubai: A murder convict has been granted early release on grounds of leniency having spent 17 years in jail after killing a co-worker in a fit of rage.
In December 2001, the Dubai Court of First Instance handed down capital punishment to the worker, who was 34 at the time he inflicted grievous head injuries on his colleague before throwing him off the stairs at a construction site, after he was convicted of premeditatedly killing his co-worker in June the same year.
Later, in 2002, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Courts of Appeal and Cassation, respectively.
In December 2017, the Indian convict lodged before the Court of First Instance a special petition requesting pardon and was granted early release after having spent more than 17 years behind bars.
Court records said the defendant and his colleague had been dining together at the construction site where they both used to work when they got into a heated argument and the co-worker cursed the defendant’s mother, sister and wife before slapping him. Then the latter went to sleep.
Prosecutors said that the defendant was driven by anger and the desire for revenge when he grabbed a hard object and bashed the sleeping man on his head and chest. Then he hurled the victim from the top of the stairs, causing his trachea to snap and his skull to splinter.
“The court will allow the convict to walk out of jail before the completion of his punishment. The court deems that he does not represent an eminent danger to the society since he has repented and would be deported from the country immediately,” presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said in the judgement sheet.
As per Article 45 of Law No 43 of 1992 on Regulating Punitive and Reformative Establishments, the petitioner lodged his plea before the court seeking an early release after completing more than 17 years of his life sentence.
The law stipulates that a convict, who has completed 15 years of a life sentence, is entitled to file a special petition to be released from jail.
The Indian petitioner obtained good behaviour certificates, according to records, and recommendations for his release issued by the management of Dubai Central Jail.
