A community leader has called for a retrial in the case of 17 Indian men facing the death penalty in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Sital Singh Gill, general secretary of Leicestershire Indian Workers’ Association, has sent a letter to Downing Street and the president of the UAE asking for an appeal.

The 17 migrant workers were sentenced to death in March.

The men, all from Punjab and aged between 21 and 25, were arrested in January 2009 after a Pakistani man died and three more were injured in a fight in the emirate of Sharjah.

Lawyers For Human Rights International, an Indian group campaigning on behalf of the men, said the men were tortured while in police custody.

Mr Gill, of Northfields, Leicester, said: “We were very upset when we heard the full details of this case.

“We believe these men were not given a fair trial and are pushing for another.”

Amnesty International said it had information the trial was conducted in Arabic then translated into Hindi, neither of which the men understand.