Shahid King Bolsen: he packed Martin Steiner's body in a suitcase and left it by the road.
Shahid King Bolsen: he packed Martin Steiner's body in a suitcase and left it by the road.

Shahid King Bolsen's troubled road to Sharjah's Death Row



In 1971, Shannon Morris was born in Boulder, Colorado. In 2006 he confessed to Sharjah police that he had killed a German engineer he met online. On Sunday, he tried to escape from jail. Now he waits as an appeals court considers whether he will be executed. A blue suitcase weighed down the boot of the stolen white Mazda. At the wheel was Shahid King Bolsen, an American who had been living in Sharjah since 2003.

That evening, Bolsen carried the passport and credit cards of a man named Martin Herbert Steiner. The car belonged to Steiner, too. Miles behind Bolsen were his wife, his three children and a crime scene. He was heading to Oman on June 14, 2006, prosecutors say, and the suitcase weighed 80kg because it contained a grisly cargo: the body of Mr Steiner. But Bolsen, police say, was not confident he would make it over the Omani border. So he parked on the Dubai-Hatta Road and dragged the suitcase - weighing more than he did - behind a bush. After covering it with a tarpaulin and some dirt, he drove away, returning to Sharjah. Within days, he would be under arrest.

Bolsen was born Shannon Morris on June 5, 1971, in Boulder, Colorado. The red-headed, freckled boy was baptised a Catholic and grew up one of three children. His father left the family when Bolsen was 12 to pursue a screenwriting job in California. His mother, Linda, stayed in Boulder with her children. "We moved out of the town-home and into an apartment," she said. "I was working two jobs trying to get us by."

Bolsen, meanwhile, grew close to his brother Sean. They spent days playing and early mornings delivering copies of the Daily Camera newspaper to homes in town. "We were best friends growing up. We did everything together. We were inseparable," Sean said. Even as a child, though, Bolsen was disenchanted with the gap between the rich and poor in Boulder. He was fascinated with the works of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, and spent hours at the library reading, his mother said.

"Shannon was not a troubled youth. He was very stable. He had his life together. He was smart and funny and he knew it. He was very critical of America's consumerism and would always find a way of mocking it," his brother added. As he grew older, he began to be more active in practising those philosophies, getting involved in social work helping homeless people. Through all of this work, his family said, Bolsen continued to search for a spiritual direction that fitted with his views on poverty.

In the early months of 1997, Shannon came across a book documenting the life of the Prophet Mohammed. Islam's generosity towards the poor struck a chord with him. He later wrote in a blog post: "Indeed, for the one who accepts what Allah has decreed, and endures his or her trials patiently, there is only good to come from external crises, the greater the crisis, the greater the good, if the believer engages their circumstance with Iman (faith)."

His mother said: "I raised my children to be independent, to have their own view. I questioned his conversion at first ... but he was able to explain it and I was fine with that." At 22, he embraced his new life so fully that he sought a new name. A Pakistani elder from the mosque he attended chose Shahid: martyr. His admiration for Martin Luther King Jr inspired his middle name. His love for his mother led him to take her maiden name. And amid his new identity, he discovered a love of writing and took a job as a reporter at the Rocky Mountain News. The newspaper, which closed last year, is where he met his wife, a Palestinian who arrived at the newspaper as part of a fellowship programme. They were married in 1997 in a traditional ceremony in the Gaza Strip.

After living a few years in Denver, Shahid moved the family to Detroit, which has one of the largest Muslim populations in the US. Bolsen worked on his Arabic and took positions in the Islamic Association of North America, helping in outreach efforts and even leading Friday prayers in local prisons, said his wife, who asked to be identified only as Umm Mohammed. But soon their thoughts turned to overseas.

"We wanted to raise our children in a Muslim country, and at the time, the UAE looked like the most ideal place - progressive yet Islamic," she said. Together with their three children, they arrived at Dubai International Airport in 2003 to start a new life. The plan was to open an internet cafe, and they did. They also purchased a minivan to ferry the family around and rented a villa. The children attended public school.

But soon the business began to founder."We were losing business, so we closed it. I had to work and Shahid was pursuing writing," Umm Mohammed said. Her work as a translator at a law firm paid only Dh10,000 (US$2,700) a month, however, and the prospects of living comfortably faded. The villa became a smaller apartment, and the family had to hire an Ethiopian maid to help with the children. The maid, named Fawzia Yousef, later became entangled in the murder case.

Meanwhile, Bolsen was becoming unhappy with life in the UAE. "Shahid went to the UAE thinking this would be a utopia Islamic state," his mother said. He launched a blog on which he ranted about politics, the Middle East and neo-imperialism. He vented his frustrations with the consumerism of the UAE and squalid conditions of labourers. "He was so critical of the way people were being treated and felt so hopeless ... he just wrote and wrote," Mrs Morris said.

On her last visit to the UAE, in December 2005, she noticed something was eating away at Shahid. "He would suffer from these really bad headaches and he became insomniac," she said. In these sleepless nights, Shahid would pore over his books and writing. He would often stay up until the morning prayers, then go to sleep. "On December 31, 2005, he drove me to the airport and tried to convince me to come live with them," she said. But it was not a move she could afford. "After that he seemed to withdraw. I wondered if he was suffering from depression."

The family even considered returning to the US, where the children could receive free education. "I found it hard to meet other westerners or people from my background. So I joined a social networking website," Shahid said during a brief interview at the Federal Supreme Court. Martin Herbert Steiner, 58, also felt alone in Dubai. His wife and daughter were still in Singapore, waiting for him to arrange accommodation for them in the city to which he had just been transferred by his company, Terasaki, which trades in electrical switchboards.

"He was a very kind man who had a lot of respect for all the people he dealt with," said Manu Bankaj, Steiner's only co-worker in the region. Mr Bankaj didn't notice anything odd about Steiner or his relationships. "His wife and daughter were in Singapore and the plan was that they would both move here after six months," he added. In the meantime, Steiner was looking for ways to meet people. According to court documents, he discovered the online profile of Bolsen's maid and contacted her.

The court says the purpose was to arrange a sexual encounter. But Bolsen and his family adamantly disagree. "He was looking for people to connect with," Umm Mohammed says. Either way, police say, it was part of a premeditated plan by Bolsen to lure in Steiner and kill him. The e-mails turned to phone conversations and Steiner and Bolsen, allegedly posing as the maid, agreed to meet on June 12, 2006, after Steiner finished work. According to the court, he had been told he would have a sexual encounter with an Emirati woman.

But Bolsen told the Federal Supreme Court on April 21 last year that he simply intended to talk Steiner out of his sinful ways. Over six hours on the day they were to meet, Steiner and Yousef exchanged 30 text messages and made several phone calls, according to documents provided by his mobile carrier. At about 3pm, Steiner left Dubai and headed to Ajman Marina for his last business meeting. He continued to exchange text messages with Yousef until 6.21pm, when, according to police, they met at a mall in Sharjah.

"What happened that night, no one will ever know," said Umm Mohammed, who, with the children, was visiting her parents in Gaza at the time of the killing. "I just have to believe my husband and what he says." Bolsen told the court that when Steiner arrived at his home, he appeared to have been drinking and became verbally abusive. "He became hostile so I asked him to leave, but he tried to force himself on [the maid]," Bolsen testified.

A struggle followed. Bolsen said he reached for his chloroform, an anesthetic once popular with doctors, that he said he used to help with his insomnia. Bolsen said he intended to sedate Steiner, not kill him. But in the maid Yousef's initial testimony, she said she had stepped out of the room and returned to find Steiner on the bed. She told the Sharjah's Criminal Court of First Instance that Bolsen "said 'do not worry, but say Allahu akbar, for an infidel is dead'."

The day after the killing, police say Bolsen used Steiner's credit cards to buy Dh20,000 worth of electronics. Bolsen later told The National that he intended to sell the items to buy his way out of the country. But by now Steiner's family were looking for him. He had last been seen at 4.30pm on June 12, 2006, and his whereabouts were unknown. For a man who was known to call his wife if he was five minutes late, this was odd - and his wife, Christina, suspected something was wrong.

On June 23, she arrived from Singapore to make a public plea for help in finding her husband. The next day, she noticed her husband's credit card had been used int Dubai. She told police, who were able to retrieve CCTV footage from the stores where the purchases were made. According to court records, the footage showed a bearded white man with a veiled black woman. Within hours, the police arrived at Bolsen's home and arrested him and Yousef. The two were separately questioned and confessed to the killing.

Bolsen told police exactly what he had done: The day after Steiner was killed, Bolsen decided to flee to Oman using the German's identity. He bound the body with a blue cord, folding Steiner's hands across his chest. Then he stuffed the body in a blue suitcase, strapping in tightly with a luggage belt. On June 25, he led police to the body. Christina Steiner has declined to speak to the media since the initial court proceedings. She asked for her husband's body to be cremated and sent to Singapore.

She also adamantly rejected the offer of blood money from Bolsen's family to spare his life. Fawzia Yousef was sentenced to three years and deportation for her role in the killing. Bolsen pleaded guilty on the grounds that it was an accidental death, but was sentenced to death by the Sharjah Criminal Court of First Instance on October 23, 2007. The decision was upheld by the Appeals Court. As required by the law for all cases where the death penalty is sought, his case was sent before the Federal Supreme Court in the capital in September 2008; the federal court handed it back down to the Appeal Court on a legal technicality.

At each court appearance, Bolsen recites the Quran inaudibly while waiting for the judge to call his name. His head is shaved; his beard is untrimmed. He became an imam, leading Friday prayers in Sharjah Central Prison. On Sunday, he escaped from the prison, evading guards for an hour before being caught. His family is now thousands of miles away: his wife and children heard of the murder just days before returning to the UAE. They went back to Colorado, where they have lived since. Linda Morris said she is haunted by her son's fate.

Now it is up to the courts to decide whether Bolsen will remain in prison, go free or face execution. After his attempted escape, a prison source said, that decision is not likely to be made for a long time. myoussef@thenational.ae

COMPANY PROFILE

Company name: Klipit

Started: 2022

Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant

Based: Dubai, UAE

Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain

Funding: $4 million

Investors: Privately/self-funded

COMPANY PROFILE

Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others

Three tips from La Perle's performers

1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.

2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.

3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.

Company profile

Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices

The Witcher - season three

Director: Various

Stars:
Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra

Rating:
3/5

Kill

Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

Starring: Lakshya, Tanya Maniktala, Ashish Vidyarthi, Harsh Chhaya, Raghav Juyal

Rating: 4.5/5

Company Profile

Company name: Namara
Started: June 2022
Founder: Mohammed Alnamara
Based: Dubai
Sector: Microfinance
Current number of staff: 16
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Family offices

Company Profile

Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed

Dengue fever symptoms
  • High fever
  • Intense pain behind your eyes
  • Severe headache
  • Muscle and joint pains
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Swollen glands
  • Rash

If symptoms occur, they usually last for two-seven days

Racecard

8.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Turf) 1,200m
9pm: Yas Island – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
9.30pm: Saadiyat Island – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
10pm: Reem Island – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m
10.30pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round 3 – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 2,400m
11pm: Al Maryah Island – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m

Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas

Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa

Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong

Rating: 3/5

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

Director: James Gunn

Stars: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper

Rating: 4/5

RESULTS

9pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
Winner: Mubhir Al Ain, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ahmed Al Mehairbi (trainer)
9.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Exciting Days, Oscar Chavez, Doug Watson
10pm: Al Ain Cup – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Suny Du Loup, Marcelino Rodrigues, Hamad Al Marar
10.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner: Jafar Des Arnets, Oscar Chavez, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
11pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Taj Al Izz, Richard Mullen, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
11.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Majdy, Antonio Fresu, Jean de Roualle
12am: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Hamloola, Sam Hitchcott, Salem Al Ketbi

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar

Director: Luv Ranjan

Stars: Ranbir Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Anubhav Singh Bassi and Dimple Kapadia

Rating: 3/5

The specs

Engine: Single front-axle electric motor
Power: 218hp
Torque: 330Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 402km (claimed)
Price: From Dh215,000 (estimate)
On sale: September

BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE

Director: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano

Rating: 3.5/5

Company+Profile

Name:+Thndr
Started:+2019
Co-founders:+Ahmad+Hammouda+and+Seif+Amr
Sector:+FinTech
Headquarters:+Egypt
UAE+base:+Hub71,+Abu+Dhabi
Current+number+of+staff:+More+than+150
Funds+raised:+$22+million+

TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin

Director: Shawn Levy

Rating: 3/5

ROUTE TO TITLE

Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2

Electric scooters: some rules to remember
  • Riders must be 14-years-old or over
  • Wear a protective helmet
  • Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
  • Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
  • Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
  • Do not drive outside designated lanes
SPECS
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive
Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre)
Torque: 450Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Starting price: From Dh212,000
On sale: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company Profile

Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000

Confirmed bouts (more to be added)

Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez

Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.

EMIRATES'S REVISED A350 DEPLOYMENT SCHEDULE

Edinburgh: November 4 (unchanged)

Bahrain: November 15 (from September 15); second daily service from January 1

Kuwait: November 15 (from September 16)

Mumbai: January 1 (from October 27)

Ahmedabad: January 1 (from October 27)

Colombo: January 2 (from January 1)

Muscat: March 1 (from December 1)

Lyon: March 1 (from December 1)

Bologna: March 1 (from December 1)

Source: Emirates

Racecard

6pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 Group 1 (PA) $55,000+(Dirt) 1,900m

6.35pm: Oud Metha Stakes Rated Conditions (TB) $60,000+(D) 1,200m

7.10pm: Jumeirah Classic Listed (TB)+$150,000 (Turf) 1,600m

7.45pm: Firebreak Stakes Group 3 (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,600m

8.20pm:+Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 Group 2 (TB) $350,000+(D) 1,900m

8.55pm: Al Bastakiya Trial Conditions (TB) $60,000+(D) 1,900m

9.30pm:+Balanchine Group 2 (TB) $180,000+(T) 1,800m

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Asia Cup Qualifier

Venue: Kuala Lumpur

Result: Winners play at Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in September

Fixtures:

Wed Aug 29: Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore

Thu Aug 30: UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman

Sat Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal

Sun Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore

Tue Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong

Thu Sep 6: Final

 

Asia Cup

Venue: Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Schedule: Sep 15-28

Teams: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, plus the winner of the Qualifier

BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES

Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)

Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm) 
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm) 
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm) 
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn  (4.30pm) 
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm) 
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)

Sunday, May 17

Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)

Monday, May 18

Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)


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