Capital punishment in the United Arab Emirates

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United Arab Emirates.

Under Emirati law, multiple crimes carry the death penalty, and the sole method of execution is firing squad.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] Current law allows the death penalty for treason, espionage, murder, successfully inciting the suicide of a mentally ill person, arson resulting in death, indecent assault resulting in death, nuclear waste disposal in the environment, apostasy, rape of a minor, perjury causing wrongful execution, aggravated robbery, terrorism, drug trafficking^[4] and joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).^[3]^[2] Overseas nationals and UAE nationals have both been executed for crimes. As of 2023, the last known execution occurred in 2017.^[5]

Stoning

Since 2020, stoning is no longer a legal method for carrying out executions following an amendment to the Federal Penal Code.^[6] Before 2020, stoning was the default method of execution for adultery,^[7] and several people were sentenced to death by stoning.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Notable cases

In 1995, Sarah Balabagan, a Filipino worker, caught the attention of many people living in the UAE. She was reported to have murdered her employer in his Al Ain house, although she has always maintained that she only killed him in self-defence after he tried to rape her. After the UAE president himself got involved, Balabagan was set free and had to pay compensation instead. However, her right to remain in the country was cancelled and she was deported to her native Philippines.^[12]

On 10 February 2011, Rashid Al Rashidi was executed by firing squad. He was convicted of raping and murdering a four-year-old boy, Moosa Mukhtiar, in the toilets of a mosque on 27 November 2009.^[13]^[14]

On 21 January 2014, a Sri Lankan national was executed after being convicted of killing an Emirati businessman by mowing him down with his car.

In June 2015, the Federal Supreme Court sentenced an Emirati terrorist woman, Alaa Bader al-Hashemi, to death for the murder of Ibolya Ryan and planting a "handmade bomb" in an Egyptian-American doctor's home in Abu Dhabi. The woman committed the crime in December 2014 and was executed at dawn on 13 July 2015.^[15] This is the only time that a prisoner has been executed within such a short timeframe and one of the few cases of a woman being executed.^{[citation needed]}

On 23 November 2017, Nidal Eisa Abdullah, a man who raped and killed an eight-year-old boy in May 2016, was executed.^[16]

On 5 April 2022 an Israeli woman was sentenced to death in Abu Dhabi for drug smuggling.^[17] Her sentence was later overturned by an appeals court and commuted to life imprisonment.^[18]

The Emirati authorities convicted an Indian citizen, Shahzadi Khan, of death of an infant. She was imprisoned in Abu Dhabi’s Al Batwa jail, put on a death row and was expected to face execution in September 2024. Shahzadi was misguided for treatment of her burns by a fraudster, was assured a job, and trafficked to the UAE. She was “sold” to a family as a forced labourer and was assigned to care of a 4 months old child. In February 2024, the baby died and Shahzadi was “trapped and forced to sign a false confession”. Her father urged the Indian authorities to intervene and save his daughter’s life.^[19]