By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates– Seventeen laborers from India were sentenced to death on Sunday for killing a Pakistani man during a fight that broke out in Sharjah, an Emirate just north of Dubai, in January 2009.  The death took place after a dispute over control of an illegal alcohol business.

Approximately fifty people were involved in the deadly attack in which the Pakistani man was stabbed several times.

According to court officials, it is the largest number of defendants sentenced to death at one time in the Emirates.  The death sentence comes just a week after Sharjah Police arrested a gang of eighteen Indians allegedly involved in the illegal alcohol trade on suspicion of kidnapping and killing rivals.

In the court session held on Sunday, a panel of judges ruled that the seventeen men, ranging in age from 22 to 30, had all played a role in killing the Pakistani man through a combination of stabbing him and beating him with metal bars.  The police report has said that the Pakistani man died from his injuries before police arrived at the scene.  Blood tests taken shortly after their arrests showed that the defendants had been drinking alcohol.

The federal penal code in the UAE says that a death sentence automatically goes to appeal.  If the appellate court upholds the verdict, the case will then be referred to the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi.  If the three judges there uphold the verdict, federal prosecutors will then submit an execution order.

A police spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the judge’s decision to issue the death sentence would undoubtedly send a strong message to bootleg gangs who start disputes with rival gangs that lead to instances of violence.

The spokesperson said that “Almost every week a case of bootlegging is now reported from Sajjia and other industrial areas.  All cases involve the use of alcohol that is illegal in the emirate.  A serious warning needs to be passed to these workers to stop the habit.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Death Penalty for Indians in UAE– 29 March 2010

The National- Seventeen Sentenced to Death for ‘Bootleg’ Murder– 29 March 2010

Indian Express- 17 Indians get Death Penalty in UAE for killing Pak National– 29 March 2010