SAUDI ARABIA: PHILANTHROPIST PAYS BLOOD MONEY, FOUR INDIANS ON DEATH ROW PARDONED

March 15, 2011: an Indian father pardoned four Indian expatriates who were found guilty of murdering his son in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 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 an altercation 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 Padmashri 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, Kunnath Mustaffa, Mohammed Mustaffa and Sakir Hussein.
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: Arab News, 15/03/2011)