DUBAI // Prosecutors have lost their appeal against the acquittal of a man accused of strangling his 28-year-old girlfriend when she said she wanted to end the relationship.
Dubai Criminal Court found Tunisian E J, 29, not guilty on April 13, after which prosecution appealed.
They say E J used martial arts skills to kill the Japanese woman using pressure points in her neck to make the death look like an accident. The Tunisian denied the charge of premeditated murder at the appeals court.
He said that the couple had been married for six months before the murder, on April 25, 2012, but the victim’s mother said that was a lie.
The victim, M R, an Emirates airline flight attendant, had returned from work at about 5am on the day of her death, prosecutors said.
When she arrived home, in Al Nahda 1, the court was told that she was attacked by her lover, who threw her to the ground face down then pressed on her neck until she died.
The Tunisian called police and a forensics expert declared the death was as a result of natural causes.
But contrary to prosecution claims, E J told police that he returned home at nearly 7pm to find M R unconscious on the bathroom floor. He said he picked her up and settled her on a sofa before sprinkling water on her face and trying to resuscitate her but his efforts were in vain.
A week later, a forensics report said the woman had been murdered. Police approached E J in his car and he was found to have Dh14,000 in cash under the passenger’s seat.
During investigations, he denied having any problems with M R, who he claimed was his wife.
“We met in Jumeirah when both were jogging,” he said, adding that they fell in love and married despite the fact that she had heart problems and was unable to have children.
“We interrogated him and he kept changing his story,” said Emirati policeman J M, 37. The officer said the victim’s mother arrived in Dubai and claimed that the couple were not married and that they had been having relationship problems. She said her daughter wished to end the relationship, which infuriated E J.
The mother said the couple had been together since 2008 and their problems were a result of EJ’s demands for money from her daughter. Friends of the victim testified that she had told them that E J had tried to strangle her once before during an argument.
“She sent me text messages before her death telling me that she was fed up with E J because he was possessive and always took money from her,” said M L, a 25-year-old Chinese flight attendant.
The court did not reveal the reasons for the not guilty verdict.
salamir@thenational.ae
