Court upholds death sentence for woman's killer

The Dubai Appellate Court upheld the first-instance court’s ruling sentencing a young Arab man to death for the premeditated murder of his European girlfriend on a staircase near her apartment.

- Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The crime was committed after she requested to end their relationship due to her involvement with another person.

According to case documents, the events took place in July 2020, when the defendant had been lying in wait for the victim, intending to kill her to avenge himself because she no longer wished to continue their relationship. He slit her throat and eviscerated her.

A security guard testified during the interrogations that a building resident informed him of a fight on the seventh floor. Upon arriving at the scene, he found blood near the staircase.

After failing to open the stairwell door, he ascended from another floor and discovered the victim lying on the ground, drenched in blood. He immediately notified the police and emergency services, who transported the body and began collecting evidence from the crime scene.

Surveillance cameras, forensic evidence, and the Dubai Police crime scene investigation led to the identification of the defendant who was arrested and confessed during prosecution interrogations that he had been in a romantic relationship with the victim since 2017, which began at a restaurant.

However, their relationship ended after he discovered her social media account and her interactions with others.

He added that she had asked him to end their relationship, but he refused and continued to pursue her.