One
of my beloved judges, Wee Chong Jin passed away on this date, 5 June 2005. I
use his quote to encourage courts to prevent miscarriages of justice in a
capital case. If you see this news of an overturned death sentence in Dubai,
courts can learn from the following safeguards:
1. See how the U.A.E has massive safeguards
in Capital Cases:
2. No matter how heinous the crime is, there
always must be a fair trial:
3. Before the courts can punish criminals,
they need to make sure that their own lawyers, judges and police are not
corrupted.
4. Telling lies should be a criminal act, one
safeguard rule.
5. Teamwork plays an important part in
safeguards of a Justice System.
6. There must be proper evidence collection:
Court overturns Dubai driver’s death penalty
Court overturns death sentence for driver who
claims murder confession was obtained by force
- By Bassam Za’za’, Legal and Court Correspondent
- Published: 16:12 March 24, 2013
Dubai:
A court overturned a driver’s death penalty and acquitted him of killing a
woman after he claimed police hung him on a wall and inserted pepper in his
rectum to obtain a forced confession.
Citing
lack of corroborated and inconsistent evidence, the Dubai Appeal Court on
Sunday scrapped the capital punishment levied against the 50-year-old driver,
A.A., from Comoros Islands, and acquitted him of killing the 59-year-old
Emirati woman, M.M., in 2002.
The
man was arrested in March 2012.
“A.A.
denied the accusation of premeditatedly murdering the woman and stealing her
safe. He claimed during questioning that the police hung him on a wall and
inserted pepper in his rectum to force him to confess to a murder which he
insisted he did not commit.
“Prosecutors
based their charges on that verbal confession and the technical evidence
[fingerprints]. He was unlawfully arrested in Sharjah without proper
prosecutors’ permission and beyond the crime’s jurisdiction,” according to the
appellate court’s verdict sheet.
On
February 10, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted A.A. of premeditatedly
murdering the elderly woman and attempting to steal her safe and handed him
capital punishment.
The
driver had pleaded innocent and firmly refuted his accusations before the courts
of First Instance and Appeal.
Records
said M.M. was a benevolent person who was constantly visited by needy residents
in Satwa for charity. A.A. was alleged to have rented a car from Sharjah and
monitored the victim’s house for three consecutive days before he killed her
but failed to steal her safe.
When
presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif pronounced A.A.’s acquittal, gasps and joyful
cheers could be heard in courtroom 20.
When
asked by the media for the reasons behind the appellate court cancelling the capital
punishment, presiding judge Al Sharif briefly answered: “Due to discrepancies
and lack of corroboration in the evidence that were produced against the
suspect.”
Sunday’s
verdict remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
An
Emirati pensioner testified that he discovered M.M.’s body when his relative
[the victim’s cousin] asked him to check on her because she was not answering
her phone.
The
appellate judgement sheet further read: “According to Dubai Police’s forensic
evidence report M.M.’s autopsy was carried out around 1.30am and the estimated
time of death was half a day [around 1pm] before that. Meanwhile the
prosecution records cited A.A. admitting that he killed the woman around 8pm.
Moreover a woman testified that she and an Iranian man visited the victim in
the morning. Then the woman said she left M.M.’s house around noonwhile the
Iranian stayed there. Hence the court regards the probability that the victim
could have been murdered by an acquaintance [other than A.A.].”
Prosecutors
said the victim was famous in her neighborhood for helping the poor. The
defendant sneaked into her home and then strangled her.
Records
said the murder took place on September 5, 2002. The defendant was arrested in
March 2012 and sent for trial in September 2012.
The
defendant was arrested because his fingerprints matched those lifted from the
safe.
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