DUBAI // A man who stabbed a wealthy father of three to death lost his appeal against a death sentence on Wednesday.
Afghan tourist B S, 21, was sentenced to die, while his countrymen T R, 21, and 22-year-old A A were given life terms for plotting to rob their Iraqi victim, H K. The life terms were also upheld by Dubai Court of Appeal.
B S had worked for the Iraqi for a short time and realised that he carried large sums of money.
Records state that, on the night of November 6, 2012, the victim was attacked by the three men, who stabbed him with two knives.
In the scuffle, the Iraqi managed to take one of the knives and stab B S in the chest but he was soon overpowered and the trio continued to stab their victim in the back until the blades of the knives broke.
Shortly after midnight, a police patrol pulled over a car driving in the Russian area of International City.
Speaking in court in June last year, Y Q, a 45-year-old policeman, said: “We stopped the driver, B S, and noticed bloodstains on his shirt but he said he had bled from his nose while playing tennis.”
The officer then asked B S to hand over his driver’s licence and vehicle registration but he replied that he did not have either to hand. B S was taken to a police station, where the stab wound in his chest was found.
“He then confessed that he killed the car’s owner because he tried to rape him,” said the policeman. B S went on to say that he had worked for the victim for more than 20 days and had complied with the man’s demands for massages.
“On the day of the incident, he asked me to have sex with him, so I punched him in the face and then he stabbed me in the chest and I grabbed another knife and stabbed him until he died,” B S said in records. He said that he then called his two friends to help him escape.
A K, a supervisor who had known the victim since 1998, said B S was given a job but, five days later, the Iraqi sacked him.
“He told me that B S had often sought financial help from him and he repeatedly helped him and that, when he returned to the UAE from Afghanistan, he kept calling H K asking for his job back,” said A K.
“The defendant’s claims that H K tried to rape him are baseless because H K was in my house until 5pm and, during his stay, B S called him to ask for a job but H K did not take his call and told me and another friend how B S was repeatedly calling, asking for a job.”
Other witnesses testified that the victim was a decent man and a good husband.
The three Afghans were convicted of premeditated murder associated with robbery.
T R and A A will be deported after completing their jail terms.
salamir@thenational.ae
