Published in: Gulf News | The National
Police trace suspects, stop plane with suspects on board before it took off on runway
Ajman: The Ajman Criminal Court has sentenced five Asians to death for the premeditated murder of an Asian businessman and for stealing Dh109,000 from his apartment in Ajman.
The accused include Q.M, 39; M.T, 25; A.M, 21; T.S, 27; and,J.S, 26, who was charged in absentia.
The court also fined them Dh109,000 and referred the civil claim to the civil court.
Lawyer Awatif Mohammed from Awatif Mohammad Shoqi Advocates & Legal Consultancy, representing the victim’s family – his wife, three children and parents – said: “They could have stolen the money and left but instead they waited for him to return home, restrained him, wrapped a cable around his neck then stabbed him repeatedly before stuffing his body inside the fridge.”
In the courtroom, the requested that the defendants pay her clients Dh200,000 in blood-money, cover the legal fees and sentence the defendants to death.
What had happened?
Police had received a report from an Asian man stating that his friend, the businessman, was missing. When he did not answer his mobile phone, the friend went to his apartment and knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
A police patrol was sent to the residence of the victim. During the search, police found the body in the refrigerator. It turned out that the person inside the refrigerator was the person who was absent in the report, and he was the owner of the building.
Caught on camera
After reviewing surveillance cameras and conducting investigations, the perpetrators were identified – they were tenants of a flat in the victim’s building.
Security footage showed the victim entering his apartment and then two people following him into the apartment. After about two and a half hours, five people were seen leaving the apartment – three of them went to their own apartment, and two people went to the roof of the building.
Getaway bid foiled
A police alert about the accused found that three of them were aboard a plane that was on the runway. The plane was stopped and the accused were arrested, along with their co-accused from the flat.
Confession
Upon questioning the third defendant in the Public Prosecution’s investigations about the incident, he confessed that he had committed the murder and theft with the help of the four defendants. They planned to kill and rob the victim because he was a businessman who kept large sums of money at his apartment.
The murder plan
The three men entered the apartment from the roof of the building through the air conditioning vent an hour before the victim had entered. After they found the money, they waited for him and then stabbed him several times in different parts of his body .
After ascertaining his death, they washed the body and the apartment from the traces of blood, put the body inside the refrigerator and then left the victim’s apartment.
They went to their apartment, changed their clothes, threw them in the trash outside the building, then hid in another emirate for a while before going to the airport to try to leave the UAE.
If you have any matters of international or local law that could benefit from the advice of our expert lawyers, please contact +971 4 325 4000.
