In a rare gesture of clemency, a Malayali family has pardoned a Pakistani national facing capital punishment in the United Arab Emirates for murdering their relative 25 years ago.

The chances of 70-year-old Akhtar Hussein being spared of the punishment have brightened as the siblings of the youth he killed will soon be submitting papers for pardon in the Sharia court in the UAE.

Hussein was handed the death sentence by the Sharia court in Al Ain in 1980, for murdering Murat of the Pothiyilthodi family of Thazhekode, near Malappuram.

Murat was murdered by Hussein while trying to foil a robbery bid by the latter at a restaurant where he was working. Hussein had come to loot it along with a compatriot, one Mushtaq.

Murat and a fellow worker overpowered Mushtaq and tied his hands. In a bid to help Mushtaq, Hussein, who was fleeing with the booty, returned and stabbed Murat fatally in the back.

According to Murat's brother, P C Khalid, the family recently came to know that his borther's killer was still languishing in prison.

"We thought he would have undergone his fate. But only recently we came to know that he was still in prison. He has already suffered for long. We are not going to gain anything out of his death," Khalid told PTI, when asked what prompted the family to take a merciful view of the case.

Khalid, a school teacher, said all three brothers and six sisters of Murat had signed the papers for pardoning Hussein. The children of one of Murat's siblings who died a few years ago had also consented that they did not have any objection in forgiving the murderer.

He said they had sent the 'legal hiership certificate' and power of attorney for attestation from the UAE consulate in Mumbai. As required by law, these papers would be presented in the court by a person authorised to do so.