In a letter sent to the interior ministry of Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Arabian ministry of foreign affairs, the embassy has officially asked the kingdom to not announce the date of execution of the death sentence until it succeeds or fails in persuading the relatives of the victim into granting pardon to Yadav in exchange for blood money. 

 

"Given a few precedents in similar cases, we are hopeful that the kingdom will temporarily halt the execution of the death sentence so that we will have time to persuade the kin of the victim for clemency," said Uday Raj Pandey, Nepal´s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. 

 

The embassy has also sent a copy of its letter to the Jubail jail where Yadav, 31, has been languishing for the last five years.

 

According to Sagar Prasad Phunyal, second secretary at the embassy, the Riyadh-based Pakistani embassy has already approached the only brother of Mohammad Latish Wasir, who was accidentally killed by Yadav in 2006, for clemency. 

 

Earlier, the Nepali embassy had requested the Pakistani embassy to find out the kin of Wasir and talk them into pardoning Yadav by accepting a certain amount of blood money. 

 

"In its preliminary conversations with the brother of the victim, the embassy has found him interested in settling the case by agreeing upon a certain amount of blood money," Phunyal said. 

 

According to Phunyal, Wasir´s wife, now married to someone else, is another rightful claimant of blood money. "Though married to someone else now, she was Wasir´s wife until his death. Therefore, her consent is equally necessary," Phunyal said, adding, "The Pakistani embassy is trying to find her. If she gives her consent, Yadav will not have to die."

 

A convicted murderer is generally beheaded in Saudi Arabia. A Nepali worker convicted of murder was beheaded a decade ago.

 

The way a convicted murderer is sentenced to death has also prompted the Nepali embassy to seek clemency for Yadav, who has maintained that he did not kill Wasir intentionally. "It was an accident," he told Phunyal last week when the latter met him in jail. 

 

Yadav, who hails from Machijhitakaiya village of Dhanusha district, had reached Saudi Arabia five years ago. Less than two months after reaching the kingdom, Yadav unfortunately engaged in a brawl with Wasir. He has a wife, Sanju Devi Yadav, and two sons, Kamalesh and Nitesh, at home.