Arbeitsmigrant soll am 21. Januar hingerichtet werden

Migrant worker Ravindra Krishna Pillai, a Sri Lankan national, was transferred to a solitary confinement cell in Sharjah Central Prison, in the northern emirate of Sharjah, on 20 January. The prison guards who moved him told him that his execution was scheduled for 21 January and that he should tell his family to attend and say goodbye.
Ravindra Krishna Pillai was convicted of intentional murder after an unfair trial during which he had no access to his government-appointed lawyer. He had been working as a domestic helper when, he has since told Amnesty International, a family friend of his employer tried to sexually assault him, in the family friend’s home. He tried to escape by driving away in the man’s car, and accidentally ran him over. He has told Amnesty International that the incident was accidental.

[PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY]

in English, Arabic or your own language:

• Calling on the authorities to stop the execution of Ravindra Krishna Pillai by any means possible.

• Expressing concern that his trial was unfair, and calling for him to be retried in line with internationally recognized standards for fair trial, without recourse to the death penalty.

• Urging the authorities to declare a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, commute all outstanding death sentences without delay and ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

[PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY AND NOT AFTER 3 MARCH 2014 TO]

President
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Ministry of Presidential Affairs
Corniche Road
Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 280
United Arab Emirates
Fax: +971 2 622 2228
Email: ihtimam@mopa.ae
Salutation: Your Highness

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Crown Prince Court Bainunah Street
Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 124
United Arab Emirates

Fax: +971 2 668 6622
Twitter: @MBZNews
Salutation: Your Highness

KOPIEN AN:
Vice-President and Prime Minister
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum
Office of the Prime Minister
Dubai, P.O. Box 2838
United Arab Emirates

Fax: + 971 4 353 1974
Email: info@primeminister.ae
Twitter: @HHShkMohd

Botschaft der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate
S. E. Herrn Jumaa Mubarak Jumaa Salem Aljunaibi
Hiroshimastraße 18 - 20
10785 Berlin
Fax: 030-5165 1900

[ADDITIONAL INFORMATION]

The Sharjah prison administration told Ravindra Krishna Pillai and four other death row prisoners in December 2013 that they were scheduled to be executed on 12 January 2014. The men, who had been convicted in three separate murder trials, had been told on 30 November that they had only a short time left to seek forgiveness and appeal for clemency before being executed by firing squad. According to the Sharjah Public Prosecution, their executions were postponed because the date coincided with the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

According to information received by Amnesty International, the other men have now been pardoned by the families of the victims in their cases, and their executions will no longer be carried out.

The UAE rarely carries out death sentences. Since 1997, 12 people are known to have been executed but dozens more death sentences have been passed. Executions are carried out by firing squad and death sentences must be upheld by the Supreme Court and endorsed by the country’s President.

The last execution known to have been carried out in the UAE was on 6 December 2012 when Sri Lankan national Alex Rohana was killed in Abu Dhabi after being convicted of murdering a UAE national in Al Ain in 2002. In the last execution before this, 30-year-old Rashid al Rashidi was executed in Dubai on 10 February 2011 after he was convicted of the rape and murder of a four-year-old child. In February 2008 a UAE national was executed in the northern emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, for murdering two men.

Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of governments to bring to justice those convicted of criminal offences but the organisation is unconditionally opposed to the death penalty in all cases and all countries, without exception, regardless of the crime for which the person was condemned or the execution method the state uses. The death penalty violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.