Man who admitted killing prostitute charged with consensual sex

Labourer who allegedly murdered a prostitute is sentenced to a year in prison on a separate charge of having consensual sex.

DUBAI // A labourer who admitted strangling a prostitute to death was today sentenced to a year in prison on a separate charge of having consensual sex.

The Misdemeanour Court also sentenced him to six months on the charge of "inciting the sin" and one month for consuming alcohol. The court also ordered his deportation after completion of the jail terms. The Criminal Court is yet to rule on the charge of premeditated murder.

MK, 27, from Bangladesh, admitted strangling the prostitute - whose identity is unknown - with her shayla after paying her only half of the Dh100 fee she demanded.

Police found her badly decomposed body at an abandoned house in Al Mankhool on May 24 this year following a tip-off. The body was lying on a couch and covered by a wooden bar. It had become so decomposed her skull and arm bones were showing.

Forensic experts, who believe the woman must have died months previously, matched traces of DNA found on a discarded cigarette butt next to the dead body to the labourer.

The labourer took her to the abandoned house and had sex with her, but afterwards paid her only Dh50. He said that the prostitute then threatened to send a number of men to beat him up.

His arresting officer JA, 24, said the labourer admitted strangling the prostitute with her shayla and waited until he was sure she was dead before leaving.

During interrogations the labourer confessed to working as a prostitute promoter.

"I would stand in front of certain hotels and yell a traditional word that means women, so men would come ask me where they could get women for sex. I would take them to the hotel where I would get paid Dh5-10 for each customer," he said. He said he worked for more than three hotels in Deira and that the receptionists would pay him to bring the customers.

He said he took this job two months before he was arrested in May. "I worked as a cleaner but lost the job then sold chips and crackers for passers-by."