Indian Death Row Convicts in UAE Allege They Were Framed after Torture
Indian death row convicts in the UAE have alleged that they have been falsely indicted in the murder case of a Pakistani national after being tortured, reported IANS.
The 17 convicts alleged this before representatives of a Punjab-based NGO, Lawyers for Human Rights International (LFHRI), which visited Dubai and Sharjah on April 13-14.
The two members of the NGO met the prisoners and also held meetings with lawyers who are fighting the case.
On their return to India, they said that the youths were not being provided proper legal aid, report said.
“We had a two-hour meeting with 17 Indians and we came across a very sorry state of affairs. The apathy of prisoners revealed a total miscarriage of justice,” LFHRI general secretary Navkiran Singh was quoted as saying while talking to reporters in Chandigarh.
Contesting the CCTV footage that Sharjah police had produced in court as evidence against Indian youths, Singh claimed: “After 30 days of the crime, they were taken to the spot and were forced to dramatise the beating up of a policeman as if it was the actual crime scene and the whole scene was videographed. Later, they showed it in the court as CCTV footage.”
“They were also made to sign on documents which were written in Arabic language and none of them could read, write, speak or understand Arabic,” he was quoted as saying.
He said that in addition to these 17 death row convicts, nearly 33 more Punjabis are languishing in the prison but officials of the Indian consulate have rarely paid a visit to any of them, report said.
