Fake bomb belt woman has reduced jail term upheld at Dubai Cassation Court

The Uzbek woman, who staged the terror alert as a reaction to an Emirati man not admitting he was the father of her son, appealed for a second time but lost.

DUBAI // The woman who wore a fake bomb belt to prosecution headquarters and threatened to detonate it has had her reduced jail term upheld.

Zulvia Hamraeva, 33, was sentenced to seven years by Dubai Criminal Court but then had the sentence reduced to two years on appeal.

The woman, from Uzbekistan, then appealed again but Dubai Cassation Court on Monday morning ruled that the two-year sentence will stand.

Her Emirati accomplice, M Y A, 28, who also appealed his two-year sentence for aiding and abetting Hamraeva by making the belt had his term reduced to one year by the appeal court, a term upheld by the cessation court on Monday.

Hamraeva was convicted of threatening to detonate the bomb belt at the prosecution building on September 1 last year. She was also convicted of threatening police and prosecution workers to force them into conducting a DNA test to prove that an Emirati man is the father of her 10-year-old son. In addition, she was found guilty of deliberately endangering the lives and safety of people and spreading terror among them by making bomb threats.

Before the terror alert, the Uzbek sent a picture of the fake bomb to J S A, 49, the man she claimed was the father of her son. Then she threatened to set it off if the DNA test was not carried out to prove his paternity.

The Emirati man testified that her met Hamraeva in 2003 and, 10 days later, she claimed she was pregnant by him.

An Ajman court acquitted him and jailed Hamraeva for one month for adultery. Three years later, she filed another case, this time at a Sharjah court, but again J S A was acquitted.

“On August 20 last year she sent me the picture of the belt but I didn’t take the threat seriously,” said J S A, adding that she asked for him to admit he is the father, as well as demanding Dh3 million and a villa.

Both the Uzbek and her accomplice denied all charges in all three courts.

Records stated that when Hamraeva opened up her abaya in the centre of the prosecution building and made the bomb threats, people were terrified and started rushing outside.

“Her belt looked very much real with its wire hooked to a detonator. This happened for the first time in the UAE and it’s so grave — others may try to do like she did,” said M A A, a negotiator who worked with the woman.

After nearly 13 hours of negotiations, she surrendered and the belt was found to be an elaborate fake.

Hamraeva will still be deported after serving her sentence, a decision upheld by both the appeal and cassation courts.