Anish Khaling spent more than two years on death row in the United Arab Emirates over a murder charge that he insists happened in an act of self-defence.

Khaling finally returned home on Wednesday night after spending 33 months in prison after an “unknown” person paid around Rs8.1 million in blood money to the family of the deceased Pakistani worker. A lower court in Abu Dhabi, UAE, convicted 23-year-old Khaling for his alleged involvement in the murder of the Pakistani man and handed down a death sentence on July 5, 2013.

Speaking to the media in the presence of his family, friends and members of the ‘Save Anish Khaling’ campaign on Thursday, Khaling expressed his delight to have made it home alive and thanked everyone for their support.

“I had given up all hope after the court announced the death penalty. I am thankful to everyone for saving my life. It feels great to be with my family,” said Khaling, a permanent resident of Matsyapokhari in Sankhuwasabha district, recalling the incident.

“It was not my intention to kill him. I was just trying to protect myself from the sexual advances of him and his friends,” he clarified, adding that he learnt about that Pakistani man’s death only a day after the incident when police arrested him on the murder charge.

“I was devastated when I learnt that the court had pronounced death sentence on me,” he says. “I will not go anywhere now. I will work here and try to help other people facing similar suffering like me,” said Khaling.

Members of the campaign had raised Rs32.1 million from Nepali and foreign donors. The Foreign Employment Promotion Board had provided Rs50,000 in seed money to save him.
The committee had transferred a total of Rs8.1 million to the Nepali embassy in UAE to pay the blood money. However, the embassy officials to their surprise found that somebody had already paid the money. The Emirati government itself paid the blood money after learning that Khaling was innocent, according to campaigners.

The money is in the joint bank account of Anish’s wife Rabita, mother Dikmaya and campaign coordinator Narad Kumar Rai. The campaigning committee is planning to create an independent fund to help out people facing a similar predicament like Khaling’s.

“We will use the fund in social work. Our top priority will be to help people languishing in jails of various work destinations,” Rai told the Post. Nearly a dozen Nepali migrants are on death row in the Gulf.

Published on: 10 July 2015 | The Kathmandu Post