Five gang members have been sentenced to death for killing a father of three at his Ajman apartment and hiding his body in a fridge.
The businessman, 33, was stabbed 62 times in the neck, head, back, face, shoulders and other parts of his body during a brutal attack.
The gang stole Dh109,000 from the apartment and a Lexus car belonging to the Chinese citizen.
The shocking murder was uncovered when a friend of the man, worried he had been missing for two days, filed a report with Ajman Police on October 8 last year.
Investigators obtained a warrant to enter the victim's home and found blood stains on the floor.
Officers noticed the fridge’s door was turned to face the wall. When they opened it, they found the dead body inside.
Evidence collected from under the victim’s nails helped officers identify the suspects - two Indians and three from Pakistan.
Four of them were arrested, while the fifth suspect - an Indian construction worker, 25, - flew out of the country from Sharjah International Airport one day after the murder and remains at large.
The men, aged between 21 and 38, admitted they had planned to murder the businessman and steal his money.
They said they used a rope on October 5 last year to climb down the building’s roof to the children’s room in the man’s apartment then gained access through the opening of a window-mounted A/C unit.
“They could have stolen the money and left,” said lawyer Awatif Mohammed from Al Rowaad Advocates, representing the victim’s wife, three children and parents.
"Instead they waited for him to return home, restrained him, wrapped a cable around his neck then stabbed him repeatedly before stuffing his body inside the fridge,” she told the court, stressing the premeditated nature of the crime.
Ms Awatif requested the defendants pay Dh200,000 in blood money, cover her legal fees and be sentenced to death.
On Monday, Ajman Criminal Court convicted all five of murder - one of the gang in his absence - and sentenced them to death.
