3 murder suspects await sentence

ABU DHABI — Three young UAE national men, who are suspected of killing a national by injecting him with an overdose of heroin, are awaiting the verdict of the Supreme Federal Court this month, according to sources in the court.

By Nada S. Musallam

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Published: Fri 17 Jun 2005, 11:30 AM

Last updated: Thu 2 Apr 2015, 8:01 PM

The decomposed body of the victim, Nasir Saeed Al Kaabi, a UAE national in his mid-thirties, was found buried in the desert. The accused — Hamad Miftah Al Mansouri, 27, Amir Mattar Al Mansouri, 30 and Khalifa Saeed Mubarak Al Khaili, 26 — claimed they were having a party with the victim at an apartment in Sahari Residence Hotel where they consumed heroin, hashish, codeine and alcohol.

They claimed that shortly after injecting himself with heroin, the victim fell unconscious and died immediately. The three accused confessed that they decided to get rid of the body, and accordingly took it by car to the desert and buried it there.

Ahmed Tuafeel, a cleaner at Sahari Residence, who saw the three accused carrying the victim, brought the incident to the notice of the police since he suspected foul play.

The Public Prosecution filed charges of premeditated murder of Nasir Saeed, against the three accused.

The Abu Dhabi Sharia Court of First Instance, however, cleared the trio of the murder charge, and observed that the death was an accident. It observed that the victim had voluntarily injected himself with an overdose of the narcotic substance.

The lower court’s judgment was based on the forensic report, which stated there were no signs of violence or bruises on the victim’s body to indicate that he was forced to take the fatal dose. It charged the accused with the crimes of hiding the victim’s body and drug addiction.

Subsequently, the court ordered the trio to three years imprisonment. It also sentenced them to spend four years each in jail for drug addiction. Besides, the court ordered each of the three accused to receive 79 lashes for consuming alcohol. The verdict was issued in accordance with Islamic Sharia Laws and the Penal Federal Law on Anti-Narcotics.

The accused appealed against the lower court’s ruling, but the Abu Dhabi Sharia Court of Appeal endorsed the ruling, and increased the number of lashes to be received to 80 in the case of Khalifa Saeed Mubarak since he had confessed to being drunk when the incident took place.

The three accused once again appealed against the ruling. Proceedings of the Supreme Federal Court will commence on Saturday and a final verdict will be issued by the end of the month.


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