UAE: Man sentenced to life in prison for murdering girlfriend

Dubai - He killed her by drowning her in the bathtub and tried to make it look like a suicide

The Dubai Court of Appeals has sentenced a Canadian man to life imprisonment and deportation for killing his girlfriend by drowning her in a bathtub.

Listen to this story and more on the 8@8 with David Light podcast

According to the prosecution, after killing the woman, the accused tried to make it look like a suicide.

He also told her friends that she was possessed by jinn and that he was treating her.

Investigation revealed that he was in a long relationship with the victim. He was jealous and had multiple affairs, which caused frequent disagreements between them.

Prior to committing the crime on March 26 last year, the accused asked the victim’s friends to convince her that he is able to heal her from the jinn that possessed her.

On the day of the crime, he consumed cannabis and then assaulted her severely, causing her severe injuries. He then drowned her and left her in the bathtub for about five hours. Then, he pulled her out and called for an ambulance, trying to make it look like a suicide.

The victim’s neighbour said that on the day of the incident, she heard the sound of a quarrel. In the middle of the night, she heard the sound of an assault and something hitting the ground. The man was speaking in Arabic while the woman was begging him not to kill her, she said, adding that she called the police and spoke to the security guard.

A witness from the Dubai Police said that when he reached the scene, the accused said that the victim committed suicide. He expressed discomfort with the police and ambulance procedures, and was asking paramedics to perform CPR on her. They told him that she has been dead for hours, the police officer said, adding that the accused appeared to be under the influence of drugs, reported Emarat Al Youm.

He added that he interrogated the accused on the second day after he regained consciousness. During interrogation, the accused stated that he was in a relationship with the victim for about three years. He noticed some strange behaviour on her, and assumed that she was haunted by jinn. So, he performed religious acts on her after watching videos on how to conduct it.

He was presented to a specialised psychiatric panel at Rashid Hospital, which confirmed that he did not suffer from any mental or psychological diseases on the day of the incident.

The forensic report confirmed that the victim was drowned in the bathtub of her room, and her injuries contradicted the accused's claim that he was trying to save her from drowning.

The accused appealed to the Court of Appeal, but the court did not accept his pleas and upheld the lower court verdict.

• Dubai