Sharjah, May 20: The first hearing in an appeal against the death sentence to 17 Indians was on Wednesday adjourned to June 16 in the absence of a translator from Arabic to their mother tongue.
The Sharjah Court of Appeals asked the Indian Consulate in Dubai to arrange a Punjabi translator for the next hearing after the appellants appeared not to understand the proceedings translated from Arabic to Hindi.
The appellants — 16 from Punjab and one from Haryana in India — were judged guilty of murdering a Pakistani national during a turf war in an illegal alcohol business in Sharjah’s Al Sajaa area in January 2009 by the Sharjah Shariah Court.
Their appeal, filed through a legal firm appointed by the Indian Consulate in Dubai, was heard by Judge Younus Al Redha and Judge Ahmed Yaqoub on Wednesday.
The packed courtroom included media representatives, diplomatic officials, and a group of three lawyers from Human Rights International India led by Navkiran Singh.
When a judge asked the accused through a translator in Hindi if they had killed the victim, there was a silence. The judge then asked the translator to ask them in Urdu. There was still no reply.
The judge asked them in English which language they spoke. A representative from the Indian Consulate clarified their mother tongue was Punjabi.
Following this, the defence counsel sought a Punjabi translator. Since the court did not have one, the judge asked the Indian diplomat to help make arrangements by the adjourned date.
Meanwhile, Singh stood up and told the court his group had been appointed by the families of the convicted back in India to represent them at the hearing.
Singh started narrating to the judge how the accused had told him they were persecuted by police and forced them to accept guilt.
He was cut short. The judge told him the hearing was being postponed and that he should work with the appointed defence counsels.
Mohammed Salman Al Zarouni, whose firm represents the appellants, was unappreciative of Singh’s plea to represent his clients.
“Your Honour, tell them to respect our legal system,” he told the judge. “They should talk to us — we are the lawyers — and not directly to you.”
–Agencies