Appeals court doubles professor’s for killing wife

A college professor who killed his pregnant wife had his five year sentence increased to 10 years by the fourth appeals court to look at his case. AJM, from Egypt, was also ordered to pay Dh100,000 in blood money to the family of his Syrian wife.

ABU DHABI // A college professor who was convicted for killing his pregnant wife had his five-year jail sentence doubled by the fourth appeals court to look at his case.

Egyptian A J M was also ordered to pay Dh100,000 in blood money to the family of his Syrian wife.

The victim’s body was found at the couple’s home in Al Gharbia by her brother. He alerted police and the husband was arrested 48 hours later in Bahrain.

A J M was first sentenced to death by the Al Dhafra criminal court. The first appeals court to look at his case then upheld the verdict.

When the case was referred to cassation, the court returned it to appeals for an error in procedures; the death verdict was missing the consent of all judges.

The appeals court once again upheld the death sentence, but the cassation court rejected it because the verdict was missing procedures to prove details concerning blood relatives.

The third appeals court examining the case found him guilty, but replaced the death sentence with five years in prison because of extreme provocation from the victim.

The cassation court rejected this sentence because for extreme provocation to apply in cancelling the death sentence there were certain factors that needed to be present as per Sharia, and those factors were missing.

Moreover, the appeals court did not examine details, including the presence of two knives instead of one at the crime scene, contradictions between A J M’s confessions and evidence presented by forensic experts with regards to the number of stab wounds, position of the victim and fingerprints found on the wife’s car.

Prosecutors said a fight broke out between the defendant and his wife after he discovered that she was pregnant and he suspected that the child was not his. She refused to abort the baby, as he requested, and her brother travelled to the UAE to help to resolve the dispute.

The victim insisted on keeping the baby and requested a divorce.

On the morning of the incident, A J M stabbed his wife in the chest, neck and stomach. He then stole her brother’s phone and drove his wife’s car to Bani Yas before fleeing to Bahrain, where he was arrested.