DUBAI// A 32-year-old will spend the next 25 years behind bars for killing his wife after she told him she was cheating on him, the Dubai Court of Appeal ruled.
The woman’s body was found in an outer room of a villa in The Springs on June 4 last year.
“The tenants told us the victim used to work for them as a part-time maid,” said policeman A H, 27.
Sri Lankan S S denied the premeditated murder of his wife S H on June 3 this year when he appeared in the criminal court.
Emirati policeman M A, 36, said the body was found in a store room. “The body was lying face down on the floor where footprints were found in the blood, which was all over the floor and walls,” he said.
The victim’s cousin, K R, 35, who works as a maid in the same area, said on the day of the murder S H called her and said she had fought with her husband.
“She told me he had screamed at her but I didn’t know why. I called her later in the afternoon but she never answered,” said K R. She said that she looked for her cousin in the villa’s storeroom because she knew she was allowed to keep some of her belongings there.
“I found the door slightly open and I saw legs on the floor, I felt terrified and called my aunt who arrived and saw the body and then called police,” she said.
S S told prosecutors that he killed his wife because she had been having several affairs since they were married in 2007.
“I called her that day and her phone was busy, I went to the villa where she worked and she was still on the phone, I asked her who she was talking to, she said she was talking to her lover because she wanted to spend the night with him, so I got furious.
“I slapped her, she tried to strangle me so I picked up a knife that was near and slashed her leg, then when she fell she tried to pull the knife out of my hands but I sat on her chest and strangled her,” said S S in his confession to police.
S S will be deported after serving his life sentence, which is 25 years long.
salamir@thenational.ae