ABU DHABI // A man sentenced to death for murdering his wife had his sentence commuted by the Appeals Court yesterday to five years in prison.
The Egyptian AJM stabbed his Syrian wife to death on September 24, 2009, just two months after their wedding.
He was sentenced by the Criminal Court and another two courts before the Court of Cassation rejected it on the grounds that his wife had provoked him.
The man's defence team argued his wife had provoked him by suggesting she was pregnant with another man's baby.
A record of her phone calls showed she exchanged many calls and text messages each day with the owner of their rented house.
When the judge asked the owner in court why he called the married woman so many times a day he answered, "She is like my daughter."
"When was the last time you called your daughter?" asked Dr Khairi Al Kabbash.
The wife was stabbed to death with a dagger, but tests could not confirm whether a dagger found at the crime scene was the murder weapon.
The Appeals Court yesterday also ordered him to pay his wife's family Dh100,000 in blood money but cleared him of stealing his wife's phone.