Man loses appeal against 7-year jail term for killing girlfriend in UAE

Dubai - The man was arrested by the police at his workplace around 4:00am on April 19, 2017.

A salesman, who strangled his girlfriend to death following a heated argument and then stuffed her body in a travel bag, has lost his appeal against a seven-year jail sentence.
The Lebanese defendant, 33, denied a premeditated murder charge and a theft count when he first appeared in court in August 2017.
The Court of First Instance found him guilty of the charges and ordered his deportation after he completed his jail term of 25 years.
The court also referred the civil lawsuit to the competent civil court.
His sentence was reduced to seven years upon appeal, which he contested at the Court of Cassation.
Dubai's highest court ruled later that the case be heard again by different judges of the Court of Appeals.
The court upheld its earlier verdict with the deportation order.
The salesman recounted to investigators he had met the Vietnamese victim in August 2016 at a nightclub and they began dating each other.
He would regularly meet her at her place in Bur Dubai. After coming back from Lebanon, he took her on a lavish trip for four nights. One day before their return, she told him she needed to go to her home country for an urgent matter and asked him for $15,000 to pay a bank installment for a flat she had purchased there. He gave her Dh50,000 as a loan to help her, he said.
"After coming back, she began making up problems with me. She once accused me for no logical reason that I was behind the circulation of her photos on Facebook. In February, 2017, I was surprised by her asking for Dh13,000 to open a beauty salon promising she would have me as a business partner, a promise she did not keep." 
It was like that until he went to her place around 9:30am on April 13, 2017. She was treating him in a demeaning and disrespectful manner. "I told her to tell me frankly if she wanted to break up with me. I also told her that she should pay my money back."
However, as he was talking to her, she acted indifferently and walked away and then acted busy in a way to ignore him. He followed her to the bathroom where he strangled her until she collapsed.
He stuffed her body in a travel bag, which he found there.
He then stole Dh4,500 from the victim's wallet, her watch, earrings, bracelets and necklaces.
The man was arrested by the police at his workplace around 4:00am on April 19, 2017.
"We found the victim's body after her friends and family got worried about her and went to check on her in vain.  After checking the building CCTV, we tracked the accused. He had stayed at her flat till around 4:00pm. He exited from the backside door," a police lieutenant said.
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai