Legal System in Qatar - what a joke.
By Nour Abuzant
A local man has been sentenced by a Doha court of first instance to three years’ imprisonment for “killing by mistake” a compatriot by injecting him with an overdose of drug. The ruling was upheld recently by a Doha appeals court.
According to court papers, the body of the 42-year-old victim was found inside his car in November 2006.
Investigations showed that the convicted suspect (now 39) and the victim had met at the suspects’ place. The suspect told the interrogators that the victim asked him to inject him with heroin and spend the night in his guest room as the other friends left.
The suspect told the interrogators: “After a few hours, I realised that my friend has died and I carried him, with the help of my brother’s driver, to his car.”
“I drove the victim’s car, with his body inside, for a few kilometers and left the car there.” The investigators found traces of the victim’s blood in the suspect’s house.
The victim’s wife alleged that the suspect meant to kill her husband as there were some financial disputes between them, but the public prosecution found little evidence to support her claims.
The judges ordered the convict to pay QR200,000 as blood money to the family of the victim.
Court sources said the convict, who remained in police custody during the trial, has been released from jail.
Gulf Times Monday 21 Feb
ex.ex.expat,
Don’t take the metaphoric designation used by Mjamille28, literally!
The inconsistency, unreliability, incoherence and non sense penalties of local court decisions, often make them look like a joke. That is why it’s often said: “a judicial system here is non existent”. What is meant by this is a proper one, is non-existent!
PS. Don’t forget that the judges are expats majority from Egypt and they owe their jobs to locals... so... no need to say more!
ok, rephrasing, they should get better ones to sit on the judges' chair..
There is a legal system here, a criminal one and a civil one. We might not like the laws or the way they are applied, but it's not legitimate to say there in no legal system here. I don't like half of the decisions of our courts at home but I'd be lying if I said there was no legal system.
Killing by Oooooops
drugs don't kill people, people do.
but alas, we live in bizarro world so we shouldn't question the system.
Yeah, it's a big joke the legal system. Read the "Court Watch" section of Gulf Times. I strongly believe it should be renamed "Funnies".
hmm then you better pack your luggage and fly where you can live a lawful life
there is no legal system in Qatar period.
chairboy , please share your thoughts and ideas at the following online forums; http://www.qatarlawforum.com/ , http://mn940.net/forum/ since you sound knowledgable of all the cases here and very logical and experience law person, atleast to me ! there you can find law professionals like yourself , maybe they will listen to you and change the law to suit you.
FathimaH: the man administered his friend an illegal substance, whether you call it heroin or even ammonia. I agree, manslaughter would be more appropriate.
One basic principle is "ignoring a law does not exempt you from complying or being subject to it".
There were two guys, one addiction, illegal substances.
One asks the other, please inject this in my veins, the other should have said "no man, this is illegal". In addition, he administered an excessive dosage to his buddy and this is what got him killed.
Call it intentional or unintentional, it's murder at last... sorry, manslaughter :)
The guy didn't ask to be killed and the accused as per the evidence didn't mean to kill...big difference!They were druggies..pure and simple. and as with all drugs accidental deaths are highly possible. Look at the example by ex ex..
Not all but I will definitely subject the guy who kills someone with an overdose of drugs to a drug test.
Of course it can. Do you want to drug test all in Qatar?
that killed him didn't serve time at all. It was an accident so I don't see it as murder, rather manslaughter. And manslaughter often gets off with a suspended sentence. I am surprised there weren't drug charges, but maybe there was no evidence in the accused's home.
Can't a blood test detect drugs?
I heard they take drug problems very seriously here or am I wrong?
saint, lol u r mean!
it's a manslaughter. both the victim & convict are locals and were drug addict. the given sentence is The maximum penalty for manslaughter as per Qatar criminal law (Criminal Procedure Act 23/2004)
I see no issue on this one, (apart from the terrible journalism which should be 6 months prison itself..) it seems a fair judgement.
Now 1 year in jail for sex outside marraige?? Now that is criminal!
Fathimah, yeah right "the victim asked to be injected" so if someone under depression asks you to kill him, would this justify you being a murderer?
WOW!!!
Three years imprisonment does not sound too bad, since at some extent there was homicide, let's not even mention drug charges in this one.
Now, this QR 200 fine sends a clear message to the family:
"this is how much your husband's worth"
:-S
joshboz,
We all know that. Some have the guts to say it, some don't dare!
Its like any legal system, you need evidence and witnesses to fully convict someone.
The correct English term you are looking for, in accordance with the Canadian Criminal Code, is "Manslaughter".
In this specific case, it will be described as "culpable homicide by criminal negligence", which does not qualify as "murder".
This is punishable by a jail term of not less than 1 year but not more than 3 years, unless the offender is declared a "dangerous offender" in which case the sentence will be not less that 7 years but not more than 15 years in jail with no possibility of parole before 2 years.
So the sentence passed by the court in Qatar, which is 3 years, is very similar to the sentense a Western court would have probably passed.
i do agree with you Nic. im starting to believe that a bunch of idiots are sitting with authority there
everything here is a joke, only some of it is disguised with an apparent seriousness!
I agree the sentence seems ridiculously low but bare in mind it also states the victim asked to be injected!what exactly transpired seems to be hidden.. And yes wasta may have a role here but all I'm saying is that the misuse of the law, and ridiculous sentencing does occur all over even in UK. just search some past threads on QL where many such cases were discussed. I'm glad the guy got some kind of punishment at least!
Fatimah, he was found guilty of murder or at the very least manslaughter (you can play with the words as you like)- he was also guilty by his own admission of supplying and administering a class A narcotic and for abandoning a body, leaving the scene of a crime, not reporting a crime - oh the list is endless and Im not legally trained!! - that much even I can glean from this useless piece of journalism. Did you read the same piece as me?? This isnt the UK but lets use the UK as the benchmark, this crime would have resulted in at least a 10 year custodial sentence. Setting a prescedent and giving the RIGHT message!! Get it??
ha ha ha ha ha ha
“killing by mistake”
ha ha ha ha ha
@ Elaph - 2 wrongs do not make a right. The Law courts in any country are responsible to society for ensuring that scum like the murdering Qatari and the drunk Indian are kept out of society for a period that is comensurate with the extent of their convicted crime. Custodial sentences are supposed to act as a deterent to others who may feel the temptation to transgress the law. What is being laid down here does NOT give out the right message - it gives out A message, but its NOT the right message.
Show me one place on earth where the application of laws are always just and right! In any case as far as this case goes the facts provided are too little and bewildering somewhat to decide if its fair or not. Comparing it with other cases is no good unless one knows the whole story. Regarding the thieving maid then she got what she deserved, and God knows best.. as a mother of a five year old myself I can tell you its a terrible terrible thing to beat up a kid specially one who is placed in your custody by trusting parents. God knows how I'll feel if my daughter was been beaten up by someone for being "stupid" Audubillah!
last month there was a drunk indian driver killed a qatari man and his driver and he received the same sentense so maybe chairboy wants to change the law of this country ???
killing by mistake in legal term is what homicide? can't the newspaper use the appropriate legal term? crappy journalism.
I think you have to accept that the report is pretty rubbish piece of journalism but even so, on the face of the facts as presented............murder or manslaughter, the custodial sentence is derisory and frankly insulting - for the purpose of comparision, in the report below this one in the paper, there is a piece concerning an Indonesian housemaid who was awarded a 30 month custodial sentence for stealing 3 gold rings from her employer and beating the employers 5 year old sone due to "his stupid behaviour" (one knows the problem!!!!!) - so there we are - murder or manslaughter and abandoning the body = 3 years - the theft of 3 gold rings = 2 years; slapping a kid around = 6 months!!!
The authorities in this country get a lot of things right - unfortunately the application of the law in respect to nationals is NOT one of them. Just another day in paradise!! I will leave you to draw your own conclusion .........
What about drug charges?
Actually the judgment does not seem that bad in this case. There appears to be no evidence to suggest murder, but it sounds like they were drug addicts.
yes a big a jooke they should kill him on the corniche