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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

UAE: Death penalty for murderer of youth upheld

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Fujairah Court of Appeals sentences UAE national to death for stabbing a stateless man to death.

The Fujairah Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court's ruling sentencing a UAE national to death for stabbing a stateless man to death during a bitter scuffle in a hotel.

The court also ordered the convict to be given 80 lashes for consuming alcohol.

The Appellate Court ruling was issued by Presiding Judge Ali Al Naqbi.

The victim's family had insisted on imposing death penalty on the defendant.

The incident happened in mid-February in 2012. The victim, Y.M.G, a stateless man in his 20s, who did not have identification papers then, was admitted in the Dibba-Fujairah hospital with a deep stab wound in the chest. He succumbed to the injury later.

The investigation team of the Fujairah Police suspected the involvement of a 24-year-old Emirati, identified as M.M.A.

The investigation showed that M.M.A. and the victim were at the same hotel in Dibba-Fujairah at the time of the crime. The team found out that the 2 had got into a brawl and M.M.A. stabbed YM.G., causing a severe wound in the chest.

M.M.A. was arrested. His urine sample tested positive for alcohol consumption.

Before the Court of First Instance, the victim's father refused to waive his son's right to retribution (Qasas) and accept the blood money (diya), On April 9, 2013, the court sentenced M.M.A. to death and ordered him to be whipped 80 times for using liquor.

The accused moved the Appellate Court, contending that he acted in self-defence when he stabbed the victim during the brawl. However, the court dismissed the defence lawyer's contention to this effect and upheld the earlier ruling.

Source: Khaleej Times, Feb. 4, 2014
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