Khubairi, a Saudi father, has magnanimously waived SR120,000 in blood money and pardoned Hemraj Moriya (35), who was found to be 100 percent at fault in a traffic accident that killed Al-Khubairi's son Othman, a Saudi Navy officer in Al-Kharj, 70 km from Riyadh. Othman was 22 at the time of his death. However, Al-Khubairi has put forward a demand of SR40,000 for the damaged car, a 2008 Hyundai that was destroyed in the accident. “I have lost my son and that was the will of Allah. I waived the blood money because I sought the reward from Allah. However, my family still needs a car and I cannot afford to buy one,” Al-Khubairi said while speaking to Saudi Gazette from Al-Kharj. He said his son who died in the traffic accident was planning to get married next year. The car was owned and registered in the name of Haleema Farah Sayyed Mohammed (mother of the deceased). As the car involved in the accident was used for one year the police set the loss of the damaged vehicle at SR40,000 that Moriya's sponsor should pay, the father said. “The case was settled in a court of law, after I waived the blood money,” Al-Khubairi, also a Saudi Navy officer, said. Al-Khubairi has eight children of school age – four daughters and four sons. He said he felt sorry for Moriya who was forced by his sponsor to drive a heavy water tanker even though he did not have a driver's license. Moriya arrived in Saudi Arabia nine months ago and landed in Al-Kharj jail after police found him 100 percent at fault in the accident that took place on April 29 of this year. Muhammad Sharif Waris, Moriya's colleague, said despite several reminders, their sponsor never bothered to send them for driving tests and to get driver's licenses. He said Moriya's wife and four children were never informed about the traffic accident and his imprisonment. “Moriya is concerned because his family has no male members and any such information will hurt them very badly,” Waris explained. Meanwhile, R. Muraleedharan, President of the Riyadh provincial committee of the Federation of Keralite Association in Saudi Arabia (FOKASA), an umbrella organization of around 21 associations across the Kingdom, urged the Indian Embassy to take up the case with the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs directing the sponsor to take full responsibility because he failed to provide Moriya with a driver's license and proper insurance coverage. “The sponsor should pay SR40,000 to the father of the deceased,” he said.
