Receptionist jailed for 15 years over Dubai murder

A receptionist who wrote a man dud cheques worth Dh50,000 before stabbing him to death is sentenced to 15 years in prison.

DUBAI // A receptionist who stabbed a man to death after he reported her to police for writing dud cheques has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

AG, a 30-year-old Pakistani, killed her compatriot EA on September 17 2011 a few days after being released from police custody. She had been arrested after EA complained she had written him two dud cheques for a total of Dh50,000. Court records did not say what the payment was for.

The receptionist and her accomplice - the Pakistani trader MF - lured the man to a one bedroom villa flat in Al Rashidiya and stabbed him several times. They left his body on the floor, locked the door and fled to Pakistan. It was unclear why the receptionist returned to the UAE, but her accomplice remains at large.

The man's body was found by a property agent who had recently agreed to let the flat to the receptionist. He said he had agreed to let the flat to her for Dh2,200 a month but that when he met her to give her the keys she said she would have to pay him the next day. She also asked him to lend her Dh300 to send to her sick mother.

He tried to call the receptionist that evening but could not get through and became suspicious. When he returned to the flat, with another prospective tenant, he forced open the door and found the body. He said he had known the receptionist since 2009, when she rented a different flat, in Al Qusais.

At the Dubai Criminal Court the woman confessed to the murder, saying she did so because the man tried to rape her, but denied writing him dud cheques.

She will be deported after completing her prison term.