In a letter to the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has requested that seed money of 15,000 Riyals (about Rs 300,000) be arranged to fight Yadav’s court case. [break]
A Qatari primary court had handed down a death sentence to Yadav in December 2003, and the verdict was upheld by an appellate court in November 2006. In December 2008 the supreme court of Qatar decided to send the case back to the appellate court for reconsideration.
Yadav -- a resident of Belaha-7, Siraha district -- has been convicted of murdering the Indonesian woman in collusion with another Nepali, Buddi Man Gurung, and two Indians.
“MoFA sent us a letter today (Tuesday) requesting that we arrange 15,000 Riyals as seed money for the remuneration of local lawyers pleading Yadav’s case, and the initial amount will be increased with additional money to be collected from different individuals and organizations,” Tirtha Khanal, assistant spokesperson at MoLTM, told myrepublica.com.
MoFA has also requested MoLTM to establish a permanent fund for fighting cases and providing blood money— relief money demanded by the families of victims from their murderers, keeping in mind that such situations will recur in future also.
According to a source at MoFA, the Nepali community in Qatar has already arranged 25,000 Riyals out of the 40,000 Riyals required for remunerating lawyers fighting the Yadav case.
Then Minister of Labor and Transport Management Ramesh Lekhak, during a visit to major labor destinations in the Gulf last year, had requested Qatari authorities to waive the charge against Yadav.
MoFA had arranged seed money of Rs 400,000 last year on behalf of the Nepal government in a bid to save Dolma Sherpa, a Nepali woman sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti lower court for the murder of a Filipino woman.
To add to the seed money, a fund of Rs 5 million was created in association with non-resident Nepalis and different human rights organizations in Nepal as blood money for the victim’s family and legal fees for local lawyers.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
Related story
'Qatar supports Visit Nepal 2020 Year initiative'
