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An Indian woman who worked as a domestic worker in the United Arab Emirates has been hanged after being found guilty of killing her employers’ child.
Shahzadi Khan, who worked for an Indian couple, was hanged last month, according to the Indian government.
According to Abu Dhabi court documents, Khan killed the boy by asphyxiating him, but a doctor who testified in the case could not confirm this as he was not allowed to perform an autopsy.
Khan’s family insists he was innocent and says the four-month-old died from a faulty vaccine on the day of his death. They say Khan did not receive “adequate representation” during his trial.
The execution was carried out on February 15, but the news was confirmed by India on March 3 after Khan’s parents filed a petition with the Delhi High Court seeking more information about their daughter.
The secrecy surrounding the execution has made headlines in India, which has close ties with the United Arab Emirates. Thousands of Indians live and work in the UAE.
According to the application submitted by Khan’s family, it states that he moved to Abu Dhabi in December 2021 to work as a caregiver for an Indian family.
He was entrusted with the care of the baby, who was born the following August. According to Khan’s father, he would often call his family in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and show them the baby via video calls.
But the phone lines went dead after the child’s death – and the family later learned that Khan was in prison. According to Khan’s family, the child died on December 7, 2022, just hours after receiving the vaccine.
Police arrested Khan two months later. Khan insisted that the video recording of him confessing to killing the child was coerced, and said he had not received adequate legal assistance in court.
He was sentenced to death in July 2023. His appeal was rejected in February 2024.
Khan’s family says they last heard from their daughter on February 13 this year when she called from prison, saying she could be hanged the next day.
When Khan’s family did not hear from their daughter after that, they filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, seeking information from the Indian government on whether she had been murdered.
In an interview with the Press Trust of India, Shabbir Khan’s father says: “He didn’t get justice. I have tried everywhere, since last year. But I didn’t have the money to go there [Abu Dhabi] to hire a lawyer.”
In a statement to BBC Hindi, Khan’s employer said: “Shahzadi brutally and deliberately killed my son, which has already been confirmed by the UAE government based on all the evidence.
“Misleading statements have been made to the media and to other governments to seek sympathy and change the focus of not mentioning the crimes he committed.”
In February, the Indian government informed parliament that a total of 54 Indians were on death row in foreign countries, including 29 in the UAE.
By: BBC
