JEDDAH, 5 June 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has paid the relatives of a murdered man SR600,000 in compensation just eight days before the murderer was to be executed.
King Abdullah paid the money to the relatives of the dead Pakistani man, according to Khaled ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwaijeri, president of the royal court.
The man who killed the Pakistani national, Abdullah ibn Ezzuddin Al-Ashouli, 23, will now be released. Al-Ashouli had alleged that the Pakistani man had raped him a number of times and it was on one such occasion that the murder took place, reported the Al-Riyadh newspaper yesterday.
The relatives of the dead man had originally demanded SR2 million in blood money, but tribal chiefs managed to lower the amount following intense negotiations. The victim’s family had also stipulated that the agreement would only be valid if the sum was paid on or before the 13th of the present month.
As the deadline drew near, several charities worked endlessly to collect donations to raise the blood money but only a quarter of the required amount was collected. So the king offered to pay the full amount from his personal funds and spare Al-Ashouli execution.
The chief judge of Asir court, Sheikh Nasser Al-Muhaimeed, said he received a telephone call from the president of the royal court on Saturday morning asking about the details of the case and judgment, which was handled by three different judges.
Al-Muhaimeed added that the president had also asked him to contact his office to collect the full amount of compensation.
