(MENAFN-Arab News) SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates: A Sri Lankan man has been executed by firing squad in the UAE emirate of Sharjah for murdering an Emirati man eight years ago, media reported on Wednesday

The 26-year-old man was executed after the victim’s family refused an offer of ‘blood money’, the Gulf News said

The Sri Lankan had been convicted of deliberately running the Emirati man over with a vehicle in 2006 following a money dispute, the paper said

Rights watchdog Amnesty International identified the condemned man as domestic helper Ravindra Krishna Pillai and said the killing occurred “accidentally” in Pillai’s attempt to escape the man, a friend of his employer, after he tried to sexually assault him

The London-based group had slammed the trial as “unfair,” saying Pillai had had no access to his government-appointed lawyer

Although the law in the United Arab Emirates includes capital punishment, executions are rare in the Gulf country, and death sentences are typically commuted to life in prison

The last execution in the UAE took place in February 2011 in Dubai when authorities executed an Emirati man found guilty of raping and murdering a Pakistani child.