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Death Verdict for Rapist and Killer of Boy in Mosque

DUBAI - The Emirati fisherman charged with raping and killing a four-year-old Pakistani boy on the first day of Eid Al Adha last year has been sentenced to death.

Rejecting the pleas of both insanity and clemency, the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday also pronounced a six-month jail sentence for the consumption of alcohol.

The verdict, in keeping with Dubai’s procedural law, is open to appeal. If upheld, the execution will be by a firing squad. No such execution has taken place in Dubai in more than five years.

After going through the emirate’s Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation, if upheld, the verdict will have to be ratified by the Ruler of Dubai.

Wednesday’s verdict, read out by presiding judge Fahmi Mounir Fahmi amid tight security in a crowded chamber, was hailed with bursts of tears and visible relief by the victim’s father, who waited patiently with his other son.

The defendant, who was present, looked expressionless. He had earlier told the court that he would abide by the Will of God.

Judge Fahmi pronounced the capital punishment and accompanying orders by consensus with member judges Ali Galadari and Mansour Al Awadi. The victim’s father was speechless as the court attendant tried to comfort him.

The convicted Emirati was found guilty of enticing the boy with the promise of an Eid gift to a mosque and sodomising him forcibly before gagging him by hand and banging his head hard enough on the floor to kill him.

The three-member bench of the court refused to grant clemency as the defendant was judged to have been ruthless in the execution of the crime.

Premeditation was also ruled out. “The defendant did not plan the murder in advance,” the court said. It was established that he had consumed liquor and for that a six-month jail term was judged fit.

Earlier in the proceedings, the head of psychological medicine at Rashid Hospital, Mohammed Hassan, had testified that the defendant was mentally sound, though with a pathological paedophiliac urge.

Chief Prosecutor Youssef Foulaz deemed the verdict fair for an unjust person who had committed a horrendous crime. The incident of late November last year had led to expectations of speedy justice.

Defence counsel Mohammed Al Saadi earlier argued that the defendant had a harsh childhood. “He was beaten, tortured, humiliated and neglected by his father and step-mother,” he said of the man with prior convictions for sodomy, rape and theft.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

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