CENTRE FOR CRIMINOLOGY
FACULTY OF LAW
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The Death Penalty and Foreign Na3onals in the UAE
Death Penalty Overview
The United Arab Emirates retains the use of capital punishment for a range of offences,
including murder, drug trafficking, drug possession, apostasy, sodomy/homosexuality,
adultery, rape, treason/espionage and terrorism-related offences, among others. Amnesty
InternaGonal (2022) reported that the UAE executed at least one person in 2021 (aMer no
execuGons were recorded since 2017), however liOle is known of this execuGon. Nine new
death sentences were also recorded in 2021 (Amnesty InternaGonal, 2022). Although data on
execuGons is limited, it is known that courts conGnue to sentence people to death, a
disproporGonate number of those sentenced are foreign naGonals.
Table 1 (Amnesty Interna1onal, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021,
2022).
The primary method of execuGon is by firing squad. Under Islamic Shari’a law, stoning to death
is also sGpulated as a legal punishment for acts such as adultery, yet this sentence is generally
not carried out and no execuGons by stoning are recorded. For example, in 2006, Bangladeshi
naGonal Shanin ‘Abdul Rahman was sentenced to death by stoning by a Shari’a court for
commiZng adultery, however this sentence was commuted on appeal to one year’s
imprisonment and deportaGon (Amnesty InternaGonal, 2006).
‘Blood Money’ (diyya in Arabic) also plays a large role in the applicaGon of the death penalty
in the UAE’s legal system. It is the financial compensaGon paid to the vicGm (or vicGm’s family)
in the case of death or injury of a person. Death sentences can be commuted to payment of
diyya, with consent of the vicGm’s family, oMen combined with a prison sentence. In the UAE,