What is the ruling on one who kills a Christian by mistake?

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Question : He says: I work as a driver, and I knew a Christian man. It happened that I killed him by mistake on the road. If his family knew that I was the one who killed him, they would have killed me. What is the ruling, and what should I do?

Answer : It is obligatory for one who kills a person under a treaty, a person granted safe conduct, or a protected non-Muslim to pay the expiation and the blood money, as Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) said:

and if he was from a people with whom you have a treaty

وَإِن كَانَ مِن قَوْمٍ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُم مِّيثَاقٌ

[An-Nisa 4:92]

What is it?

a compensation payment presented to his family and the freeing of a believing slave

فَدِيَةٌ مُّسَلَّمَةٌ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِ وَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ

[An-Nisa 4:92]

So this man must perform the expiation for killing, which is fasting or freeing a slave.

then [instead], a fast for two months consecutively

فَمَن لَّمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ شَهْرَيْنِ مُتَتَابِعَيْنِ

[An-Nisa 4:92]

If he cannot find a slave, there is no feeding in this expiation; there is no feeding in the expiation for killing. Whoever finds a slave should free it, and whoever does not find one should fast for two consecutive months. If he is unable to do so, the expiation is dropped from him because there is no feeding in it. He is also required to hand over the blood money to the victim's family.
And if he fears that they will kill him, as he said in the question, let him instruct someone to be an intermediary. This intermediary man should say to the family of the one who was killed: This is the blood money for your deceased; the one who killed him by mistake gave it to me.

Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[7 من 13] ما حكم من يقتل نصرانياً بالخطأ؟!! الشيخ ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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