Visitor gets 25 years over brothel murder

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A visitor who slayed a countryman during a Dubai brothel brawl must see out his 25-year-jail term, the Dubai Appeals Court has upheld.

The Asian defendant, 54, murdered the countryman inside a flat in Naif area on Jun.27 last year. The brothel boss, 41, and his friend, 51, packed the body in a carton with a motive to stash it.

They started sealing the carton with duct tape in preparation to take it out and dispose of it. An Indian businessman staying in the next flat suspected them and called police. They fled the scene.

In court, the defendant said he acted in self-defence. “He beat me and I fought back.” The boss denied running the brothel and benefiting from proceeds of seven women working as streetwalkers.

The seven women confessed to streetwalking. Prosecutors charged the brothel boss, the friend and the women of declining to alert authorities that the defendant murdered someone in the brothel.

The Criminal Court jailed the defendant for life plus deportation over murder. It jailed the boss for five years, a Dhs100,000 fine plus deportation and the women for five years plus deportation.

It jailed the friend for one year plus deportation. They appealed. Prosecutors revealed they earlier confessed to the charges and each one explained his role. The Appeals Court upheld the penalties.

On the record, the businessman was entering his flat when he spotted four women running out of the adjacent flat looking terrified and perplexed. Three bloodstained men ran out one by one.

An Emirati lieutenant said the boss was nabbed at the Dubai International Airport. He explained that the victim smacked the defendant’s head with a bottle and the latter knifed him to death.

When the defendant and all clients fled, the boss contacted his friend to bring a trolley. They were wrapping the carton when they heard someone outside. His friend acknowledged this.

Police learnt the defendant was hiding under a Dubai bridge. Upon arrest, he said, “I came to the UAE a day ago. I consumed alcohol at my colleague’s flat. He asked me to escort him to a brothel.

“There, he entered a room with a woman. I waited in the salon. The victim walked out of a room and insulted me. I returned the insult. He beat me and injuriously struck my head with a liquor bottle.

“I stabbed him several times with a kitchen knife. I bathed, washed clothes and fled. I changed the shirt and shoes.” Another lieutenant said police seized a bloodstained shirt in a bag found with him.