Prostitutes granted early release from Dubai prison after murdering their handler

The women and their accomplice murdered their Russian handler in 1998 and were sentenced to life in prison

Two prostitutes who killed their handler and burnt her body almost 20 years ago were granted early release from prison by Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday.

The Khazakh, 45, and her Uzbek accomplice 40, were convicted of premeditated murder in 1998, along with a Jordanian man, 39, who helped them. All three were sentenced to life in prison.

Court records show the two women had been brought to the country by the Russian victim, Elena Babej, to work in the sex industry.

The women lived with Babej — who took their passports — in an apartment in Al Muraqqabat, where she would take most of their income made from prostitution.

The pair met their male accomplice then he and Uzbek, who was aged 21 at the time, became romantically involved.

The women told him they had been forced into prostitution by Babej and she refused to return their passports to them.

After coming up with a plan to kill Babej, the man agreed to help and bought a knife.

At 4.30am on March 25, 1998, the women told the man that Babej had gone to sleep and the woman asked him to come to the flat to help them kill her.

After he arrived at the apartment, he restrained Babej and covered her face with a pillow to silence her as his Uzbeck girlfriend stabbed her in the abdomen and chest. Meanwhile the Khazakh woman acted as a look out.

Records show the knife broke inside Babej’s body but the boyfriend had a second knife which he gave to his girlfriend who resumed stabbing.

When the victim stopped resisting, the two removed the pillow from over her head then the boyfriend continue to stab Babej and then strangled her.

According to court records, the three hid the body on the roof of the apartment before stopping to celebrate by drinking alcohol. They then placed the body in a plastic bag and took it to an abandoned house in Ajman where they burnt it using fuel bought from a gas station.

The three returned to the Dubai flat where the man and his girlfriend had sex in the victim’s bedroom.

Police were notified after the corpse was found by passers-by.

The three defendants were arrested in June the same year and, at Dubai Criminal Court, they all denied a charge of premeditated murder.

The women admitted to a prostitution charge and the couple admitted to having consensual sex out of wedlock and consuming alcohol.

During investigations, the boyfriend’s parents said their son came home that day with bloodied clothes and when they asked him what happened, he said he had been in a fight with a Russian man and killed him.

Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the three to life in prison for premeditated murder. The couple were sentenced to an additional 18 months each for having sex and drinking alcohol, while both women were given an additional six months in jail for prostitution.

Both women applied for an early release after serving 15 years but their appeal was rejected by the court which ordered they complete their sentences.

Court records did not disclose whether or not the Jordanian man applied for early release.

Under the law, the women were obliged to wait a year to make a second application for early release in 2014. Their third attempt in 2016 was also rejected.

In May this year, after serving 19 years of their prison term, the pair applied for the fourth time after obtaining a waiver from the family of the deceased in which they dropped charges against them.