Amnesty International on Friday urged the United Arab Emirates to investigate the alleged torture and forced confession of 17 Indians sentenced to death last month for killing a Pakistani man.

Citing Indian rights group Lawyers For Human Rights International (LFHRI) which is campaigning on their behalf, it said the 17 men were beaten with clubs, given electric shocks, deprived of sleep and forced to stand on one leg for prolonged periods.

A month after their arrest in January 2009, the men were taken to the scene of the killing in the coastal city state of Sharjah, one of the UAE's seven emirates, and forced to re-enact it.

Video footage of them beating up a policemen posing as a dead man was subsequently presented at their trial as genuine CCTV footage of the killing, LFHRI charged.

"This is a mockery of justice. These 17 men have been tortured, forced to confess and sentenced to death based on a faked video," Amnesty's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Hassiba Hadj Sharaoui said.

"Amnesty International is calling on the UAE authorities to investigate the allegations of torture and abuse and to ensure the 17 men receive a fair trial on appeal," the group said in a statement.

The Indians were accused of leading a mob of up to 50 people involved in a fight last year between rival bootleg liquor gangs, in which a Pakistani man was beaten to death with metal bars and three others were injured.

The UAE justice ministry said after the death sentences were passed that they had been handed down by a lower court in Sharjah and were subject to appeal.

The sentences marked the highest number of death penalties handed down at one time in the emirate, court officials said.

Amnesty charged that the Emirati lawyer for the 17 men could not speak their native Punjabi and did not refer to the alleged torture in court, and that the death sentences were not made known to them until 16 days after the verdict.

The 17 have appealed are due to reappear in court on May 19.

(Source: AFA)