Torture case adjourned as defence lawyer backs off

The court will be assigning another legal counsel to represent H.S.

H.S., an ex-security supervisor, was given the death penalty by the Court of First Instance as he was convicted of torturing to death his eight-year-old daughter Wadeema, but he told the court that his conviction lacked ‘concrete evidence’.

He denied the charges of torturing and illegally confining and depriving his two daughters, 8 and 7, of their freedom with the use of force, which led to the death of the eldest and permanent injury of the youngest, Mira. H.S., however, admitted that he hid Wadeema’s body by burying it in a remote desert location in Al Badayer in Sharjah.

He alleged that the investigators did not take his brother’s testimony into consideration and other facts which proved that he loved and treated his daughters well. H.S. alleged he did not inflict the injuries and burns on the body of his daughter Mira, blaming a housemaid for some of them.

He also said his accomplice, who he claimed to be his wife, gave a confession under pregnancy stress. She had earlier pleaded guilty and was sentenced later to life in prison. The initial verdict convicted the two accused of torturing, mentally and physically, H.S.’s two daughters.

mary@khaleejtiems.com