Diya payments in the UAE: everything you need to know

Under UAE law, if a person causes the death or injury of a person (whether accidentally or intentionally), that person must pay the victim’s family so called Diya (also known as ‘legal blood money’). The payment, in practice, is intended to act as a form of protection for the victim’s family against further threats from the perpetrator (or their accomplices or associates) and is separate to Qisas which is punitive damages.

The concept of Diya can be traced to the Q’uran and is only payable if the perpetrator is found guilty of the alleged crime pursuant to the relevant criminal code. However, if the perpetrator is able to establish that they only caused death or harm in defence to a threat against them, their family or their property, no blood money will be payable. 

When addressing Diya, however, there is an important distinction to be drawn between premeditated murder and manslaughter:

Premeditated murder 

The law does not specifically provide for Diya to be paid in cases of premeditated murder. This is because this crime usually results in the execution of perpetrator. The victim’s family or the Court can also seek/impose Qisas. If the victim’s family reaches an agreement with the perpetrator for Qisas, then the agreement is formally documented, and the death penalty is likely to be commuted to imprisonment. 

Manslaughter

Manslaughter is also referred to as ‘wrongful killing’, the level of Diya is usually set at AED 200,000 (Federal Law No. 9 of 2003 regarding “amending the amount of legal blood money for a person who died by mistake”).

As above, there is a distinction between Diya and Qisas. It is open to a victim’s family to apply for or agree Qisas separately and in addition to Diya. As stated by the Court of Cassation:

“There is nothing that prevents the heirs from claiming compensation for material or moral damages incurred to their persons as a result of the death of their inheritors, in addition to their right to collect the legal blood money that is legally owed to them by law and imposed on the perpetrator of the harmful act, which resulted in the death of the hereditary.”

When considering Qisas, there is no legal amount that can be claimed. Instead, the Court is entitled to take into account a number of factors such as whether the victim had children.