Saudi Arabia: Philanthropist Pays Blood Money, Four Indians Pardoned
By Arab News
By MD Rasooldeen
An Indian father has pardoned four Indian expatriates who were found guilty of murdering his son in Riyadh in early 2008.
Abdul Kader, the father, received SR680,000 in blood money from the four expatriates who murdered his 24-year-old son, Mohammed Ashraff, in Riyadh’s Aziziyah district.
The dead man was from the port city of Mangalore in the southern state of Karnataka. His killers were all from the south Indian state of Kerala.
The blood money was paid by Gulf-based Indian businessman C.K. Menon through a Saudi friend in Alkhobar, Mohammed bin Hamim.
Bin Hamim said Menon, a philanthropist, instructed him to pay the blood money on his behalf in sympathy for the convicts’ families.
The four Indians who carried out the killing were Mohammed Fazaludeen from Kannur, Kunnath Mustaffa from Perintalmanna, Mohammed Mustaffa from Palakkad and Sakir Hussein from Thiruvananthapuram.
The first three are married, while the fourth is single.
Shihab Kotukad, an Indian social worker who was dealing with the case, said Menon agreed to pay the blood money after intervention by former Kerala Chief Minister Omman Chandi.
The men were convicted of murder in late 2008, six months after the killing. Sources said that although the four men have been pardoned (according to the private rights of wronged individuals), they still have to face five years in jail for breaching public rights.
Officials from the Indian Embassy in Riyadh attended court to oversee the pardon deal.
