Kathmandu, May 21 Qatar has sentenced a Nepali migrant worker named Anil Chaudhary from Mahottari district to death. Chaudhary had been accused of killing a Qatari national named Omar Mohammed Umar al-Ramajani al-Nuaimi in Qatar. This is the first time a Nepali citizen has been sentenced to death in the destination. The Qatari prison administration executed the death sentence after the country’s Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision. Kumar Dahal, director general at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), confirmed that the aforementioned person had been sentenced to death by a firing squad in the first week of April. “We got to know about the execution after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) informed us about it,” he added. Dahal further said that the Qatari government had sentenced the Nepali migrant to death after the victim’s family refused to pardon him. Qatar had informed the Nepali Embassy in Qatar about the sentencing only a day before the execution. Upon receiving the information, the embassy had sent a letter to the MoFA asking it to try and stop the execution. “However, our request was denied by the Qatari government,” said an official from MoFA seeking anonymity. Chaudhary is said to have struck Omar Mohammed Umar al-Ramajani al-Nuaimi dozens of times with a khukuri. He was arrested in the first week of April 2017 on charges of murder, the official informed. As per the MoFA official, the Qatari court has not sentenced any other Nepali to death by a firing squad. So far, the order against Chaudhary is the strictest that has been given to Nepalis charged with murder. “The interesting thing is that the Qatari government has not yet executed any other Nepali who has been sentenced to death in other cases till date,” he said, adding, the full details of the murder case have not been made public yet. Chaudhary’s body is being kept at a local hospital and the Qatari administration has given permission to send his body to Nepal. This is also the first time a Qatari national has been killed by a Nepali. At present, 10 Nepalis are in jail for having committed murder but the victims were also Nepalis. Chaudhary had gone to Qatar on August 27, 2015 and was employed as a general labourer in a car washing firm. He was kept in Qatari central jail. As per the official, he was sentenced to death by a Qatari lower court on December 12, 2017. Chaudhary then appealed the sentence at the Supreme Court but the apex court upheld the lower court’s decision. A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 22, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.