ABU DHABI // A father who whipped his 12-year-old son to death has had his one-year jail sentence overturned by the court of cassation.
Emirati R M admitted repeatedly hitting his son with an electrical wire and a cane, claiming he only wanted to discipline him for poor school grades.
The beating was so severe the son was left unconscious and covered in blood.
He was driven to hospital by his mother where he was declared dead.
Prosecutors originally charged R M with causing death by beating, which holds a maximum jail term of 15 years.
At the first trial in Abu Dhabi Criminal Court, the charge was changed to premeditated murder.
As the boy's heirs, the father's parents, waived their rights to a death sentence, R M was sentenced to three years in jail and a blood money settlement of Dh200,000.
His sentence was later reduced by the appeals court to one year, as the boy's mother also waived her right to blood money.
On Wednesday, the court of cassation ruled that the heirs should not have been consulted in this case.
The law states that a father cannot be charged with premeditated murder unless he confesses, which R M did not, or if it was a straightforward murder act.
In this case, as the tools he used to kill his son were not weapons, it proved it was an attack driven by anger and not planned.
Also, Sharia states that a parent cannot be executed for killing his or her own child.
Hence, there was no death penalty to waive anyway, so the charge should have been beating that led to death.
Also, the medical report showed there was not a fatal blow from the father, as the boy died from shock caused by the pain of the beating.
The cassation court therefore rejected the appeals court’s sentence of one year for premeditated murder and bounced it back for another hearing.
hdajani@thenational.ae