India hiring UAE lawyers to provide aid to 17 Indians on death row

New Delhi, Apr.3 (ANI): The Indian consulate in Sharjah has been talking to prominent lawyers of UAE for legal aid assistance for seventeen Indians on a death row.

Government sources here said that the authorities in Sharjah have been meeting prominent lawyers to seek their assistance and the appeal to the higher court will be made within the prescribed period of two weeks from the date of judgment by the lower court.

The Indians are pleading innocence and they are in good health, the sources confirmed.

Earlier, relatives of the seventeen Indians on a death row, who are mainly from Punjab, have demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention in rescuing them from the gallows.

Relatives claim that the convicts are being framed.

Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has also assured support to the 17 Indians sentenced to death for killing a Pakistani national in UAE, saying New Delhi will stand by them if they appeal in a higher court. (ANI)