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Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
The elderly father of an Indian woman on death row in the UAE has made a desperate appeal for mercy to the Gulf state’s ruling family and his own country’s leaders in a last-ditch attempt to save her life.
Shahzadi Khan, 33, was allegedly deceived by a fraudster and trafficked to Abu Dhabi before being implicated in the death of an infant, a crime she vehemently denies committing. Imprisoned in the Al Batwa jail, she could be executed any day after 20 September, her father Shabbir Khan told The Independent.
Mr Khan is now appealing to president Droupadi Murmu and prime minister Narendra Modi to intervene and secure clemency for his child.
“My daughter is innocent, please help save her,” Mr Khan, 67, said.
Her ordeal began in 2021, during the Covid pandemic, when she befriended a man named Uzair on Facebook, Mr Khan, a resident of Goira Mughlai village in northern Uttar Pradesh state’s Banda district, he said.
Her father said Shahzadi was promised treatment for the burns on her face and body she sustained as a child after boiling hot water accidentally fell on her.
“Uzair told her he would be able to get her better medical attention in the UAE and, circumstances permitting, even a job,” Mr Khan said. “He told her his uncle and aunt lived in Abu Dhabi and they could help with a tourist visa. And she could work for them while she was there.”
Uzair, from Agra in Uttar Pradesh, claimed to be a social worker and businessman, Mr Khan said.
“Shahzadi was hesitant,” he added. “Uzair reassured her, ‘The visa is only for 90 days and you can return after that.’”
The Independent was unable to contact Uzair.
Mr Khan claimed that after arriving in the Gulf country in November 2021 his daughter discovered that her visa was for six months and she had been “sold” to a married couple as a bonded labourer, apparently for a hefty amount.
She was tasked to care of the couple’s four-month-old baby.
The baby died in February and Ms Khan was falsely implicated to shield the couple from blame, her father claimed.
She was “trapped and forced to sign a false confession” by the baby’s mother, leading to her wrongful conviction, Mr Khan claimed.
“But she didn’t do it. My daughter is innocent,” he said, lamenting his inability to ensure effective legal representation for her due to a lack of resources.
He had “made peace” with his daughter’s situation as a bonded labourer, Mr Khan said, because “they at least gave her food and shelter”.
“But when I did not get a call from her for ten days, I grew concerned,” he said. “I would call her daily but there was no response.”
Mr Khan eventually sought help from a local police station that connected him to authorities in the Gulf nation. “That is when I learnt she has been imprisoned in a case of murder.”
According to Abu Dhabi court documents, Ms Khan asphyxiated the infant on the “spur of the moment”. She was angry with her employers over “mistreatment and nondelivery of salaries”, the court was told during the trial, and she took out her frustration on their child.
The doctor who testified at the trial, however, said the infant’s family did not let him do a postmortem, so he could not conclusively declare asphyxiation as the cause of death. The baby had received a vaccine shot that morning and was running a fever, the court was further told.
“How could my daughter be blamed when there was not even an autopsy?” Mr Khan asked. “If she had good legal representation, she would not have been convicted.”
The Independent contacted the victim’s mother by phone but did not receive a response.
In July, Mr Khan filed a police complaint against Uzair for allegedly duping and trafficking his daughter.
After the Allahabad High Court allowed Uzair to apply for interim bail, Mr Khan wrote to the Indian president, prime minister and ministries of home and foreign affairs, pleading for their help to save his daughter’s life. He also sought a swift investigation into what he alleged was a conspiracy to implicate his daughter for the infant’s death.
In the letter, Mr Khan demanded Uzair’s arrest. He claimed Uzair was “on the run” after the high court declined to quash the case against him while giving him permission to apply for bail before a lower court.
“My daughter’s death sentence was initially scheduled for 2 May 2023,” he said. It was postponed after the UAE was struck by floods and a member of the royal family, Sheikh Hazza bin Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, died, leading to a period of mourning.
“But an officer told my daughter earlier this month that she could be hanged anytime after 20 September,” Mr Khan said.
As the days tick by, the family’s hope is dwindling. “I hope there will be justice. I ask the government to help me save my daughter, who has been entrapped in this case. Please do something to save her, to stop her execution,” Mr Khan said.
“We tell her to have faith in God, that He will save her,” he said, recalling his last conversation with his daughter. “But it’s hard to keep the faith when you’re facing death.”
