Man sentenced to life behind bars for killing girlfriend in Dubai

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced an Asian to life behind bars to be followed by deportation for killing his girlfriend in his apartment following a dispute between them.

The defendant hid his dead girlfriend’s body in a large suitcase and tried to get rid of it in a waste container for the building where he was living after spending a day in her arms under a bed in his bedroom. The court of Appeal upheld the verdict.

The incident, which took place in the International City, dated back to January 2022 when a building guard reported to the police that he had found a body inside a suitcase near the building’s waste container.

As he opened the suitcase, part of a human foot came out and he thought it was a doll, he added, noting that he examined the suitcase, he found the body of a woman inside it and he informed the police.

The guard stated in the interrogations that he could identify the body, which belonged to a woman that was frequenting the same building in which he worked, specifically one of the apartments in which an Asian young man was living.

A policeman stated that a team of detectives entered the suspect’s apartment and collected evidence from the crime scene.

They found traces of the murder inside his room but did not find him inside the apartment, he said, adding that a search warrant was issued and consequently he was arrested in a nearby hotel in Jebel Ali area.

On interrogation, the defendant admitted that he and the victim had been friends for some time and that he had killed her following a dispute that broke out between them on the day of the crime.

He had met the victim in a nightclub some time ago and since then she had become his close friend and girlfriend, he said, adding that she was staying in his apartment and they agreed to  make the relationship official later on.

However, a dispute erupted between them and developed into a verbal altercation on the day of the crime.

The defendant said the reason behind his dispute with the victim was that the latter decided to end their relationship, so he decided not to let her go and tried to solve the problems between them.

She, however, decided to leave the apartment and not to come back again, he said, adding that he slapped her and the issue developed into a fight.

So, he strangled her with his hand until she passed away and put her accessories into a garbage bag before getting rid of them in a waste container, he said.

Later, he decided to spend the night next to her body under his bed before he fell asleep, he said, adding that the following morning, he put the victim’s body inside a suitcase and placed it near a waste container.

He then collected the rest of her belongings and her mobile phone and threw them in a waste container near a hotel where he once stayed in with the help of three of his friends.

The defendant’s accomplices were convicted and a jail term was imposed on them to be followed by deportation for not informing the competent authorities of the crime even though they knew about it.