DUBAI // A Russian accused of killing a man, packing his body in a travel bag and dumping it in a boot of a car was cleared of murder yesterday at the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance. Doubts surrounding the victim's exact cause of death led Judge Mounir Fahmi to acquit SA, 25, of murder. The judge said the medical examiner had failed to prove the victim had not simply died of a drug overdose.
SA and his female co-defendant, N J, an Uzbek national, were, however, found guilty of taking drugs and each received a four-year prison term. They will be deported on completion of their sentences. The public prosecutor had said SA was taking drugs with the victim, identified only as AA, when a fight broke out in which the victim was beaten unconscious. The defendant then put the victim inside a large travel bag, wrapped it in a nylon sack and placed him in the boot of the victim's own car.
Police found the body earlier this year after members of the public complained of a smell coming from a parked car. The vehicle had been left in a car park in the Satwa district of Dubai. Investigators discovered that SA and the victim knew each other well. During a police interview, the defendant admitted to knowing AA and claimed he had come to his flat in Karama where they both took drugs. SA said his friend had died of an overdose.
Fearing he would be blamed for the death, SA decided to get rid of the body. He placed it in a bag and then put it in the boot of AA's car. SA told police he intended to drive to Jumeirah to get rid of the body but the car broke down and he abandoned it. The medical examiner's report said the victim was probably unconscious when he was put in the car boot, due to the beating he had endured and the quantity of alcohol he had drunk.
"The most likely cause of death is suffocation due to being placed in a tight space with limited air and little room to move inside a sack that was securely fastened," the medical examiner said. Judge Mounir said the report could not say for certain that the defendant died from strangulation. "There was some doubt, the medical examiner could not identify the exact cause of death, whether it was from a drug overdose, strangulation or the beating the victim was subjected to," said Judge Mounir.
The report said there were visible signs of an assault on the body but that it had badly decomposed by the time it was found. hbathish@thenational.ae
