Two men sentenced to life for murder

Two men were sentenced to life in prison for killing a man by running him over with their car and stealing Dh300,000 (US$82,000).

DUBAI // Two men were sentenced to life in prison yesterday for killing a man by running him over with their car and stealing Dh300,000 (US$82,000) from him. The men were found guilty of premeditated murder in Dubai Criminal Courts. They have two weeks to appeal against their sentence. According to prosecutors, AN, an Iranian businessman, and MA, who is stateless, watched the victim withdraw Dh300,000 from a branch of Dubai Islamic Bank at about 11am on June 26 last year.

Recovered CCTV footage showed AN trailing the victim out of the bank, which raised police suspicions because AN had not conducted a transaction there. The pair then followed the victim to Ras al Khor, where they crashed their car into his, prosecutors said. When he got out to inspect the damage, he was run over and killed. The men took the cash, which was in a bag inside the victim's car, before fleeing. The man's body was discovered several hours later.

Prosecutors said the defendants were members of a professional gang that steals vehicles. AN left the country for Iran two days after the murder, prosecutors said, and was arrested when he tried to return to Dubai. The court's decision allowed a civil case to be filed by the victim's family to try to claim blood money. [e-mail]