Man who killed runaway prostitute granted early release

The inmate served 15 years of a life in prison sentence and earned a certificate of good behaviour

A man was granted early release 15 years into a life in prison sentence for kidnapping and killing a woman in return for $300 (Dh1,100).

Dubai Criminal Court granted the Uzbek man early release after the 59-year-old earned a certificate of good behaviour from authorities.

In 2001, a 40-year-old brothel owner hired the inmate to kidnap a woman he forced into working for him who had run away.

The Turkman trafficked the victim, also from Turkmenistan, to Dubai in February that year then forced her to work as a prostitute.

A month later, the woman ran away and took shelter at a friend’s flat until she could leave the country.

The Uzbek, who was hired a few days later, said he went to the flat where the woman was staying on March 16, 2001.

He said he tried to drag her out of hiding and take her bag to the brothel but she resisted.

“I didn't mean to kill her but as a result of the struggle between the two of us, the woman’s neck broke and she died instantly,” the man said in court records.

Prosecutors said the Uzbek dropped the woman’s body from the balcony of the seventh floor of a building in Al Muraqqabat to make it look like a suicide then fled the crime scene.

Police received a report of someone having fallen from a building but initial investigations showed that the woman was murdered.
Shortly after, police arrested the killer, the man who hired him, and the woman in whose flat the victim was hiding.
All three were charged with premeditated murder. The Uzbek and the Turkman were additionally charged with kidnap while the Turkman was also charged with running a prostitution ring.
Charges against the flat owner were dismissed in court.

On February 18, 2002, the two men were convicted of all charges and sentenced to life in jail by Dubai Criminal Court.

The Turkman was sentenced to an additional five years in jail for running a brothel.
On April 28, 2016, the Uzbek applied for early release, a right granted by UAE law to inmates with good behaviour who have served 15 years of their prison term.

On Monday the court granted his release and ordered he be immediately deported.