JEDDAH, 15 June 2005 — The relatives of Muhammad Nauman Mehmood Hussain, an accomplice in the murder of a Pakistani limousine driver Malik Muhammad Akram Tahir, are looking for the heirs of the victim to offer blood money. They hope to spare the convicted man from further time in jail. He has already served eight years of the 15-year jail term.
Malik Akram was murdered while trying to save his limo from being car-napped by two foreign nationals.
On Oct. 5, 1997, Akram’s two passengers — a Sudanese and a Yemeni — tried to commandeer his vehicle in a deserted area in Jeddah. He was asked to get out of the car and when he refused Akram was shot twice in the head. The murderer’s accomplice dragged Akram’s body out of the car. The two men then escaped in the limo.
The killers, who were drunk at the time, crashed the stolen car. They abandoned the limo and stole another car in a bid to escape to Yemen. Police gave chase and caught them.
The case was tried and the principal accused, Haroon Bishara of Sudan, was sentenced and executed; his Yemeni companion, Hussain, was given 15 years jail term. The court dismissed Bishara’s mercy plea as he confessed all of his previous crimes before the judge. Hussain told the court that he tried to stop Bishara from killing the driver but had failed to stop him.
Now eight years later, Nijat Mehmood, Hussain’s sister, contacted the Consulate General of Pakistan and offered to pay the blood money to the heirs of Akram in the hope of canceling out her brother’s remaining sentence.
According to Nijat, Hussain is not the main accused and feels he paid too much for the crime, and so submitted a mercy plea to the heirs of Akram to pardon him.
An official at the Consulate General of Pakistan said: “We have received the application from the sister of the co-accused and have contacted the Pakistan Overseas Foundation (OPF) regarding the exact information about the legal heirs of the deceased.”
