ABU DHABI // Witnesses in the case of the nursery teacher stabbed to death in a Reem Island mall called the scene “bloody and loud”, the Federal Supreme Court heard on Monday.
Alaa Al Hashemi, 30, is accused of murdering American Ibolya Ryan, 47, in a bathroom at Boutik Mall. Ms Al Hashemi is also accused of making a bomb and leaving it outside the flat of an American doctor.
E A, who was in the toilet stall next to Ms Ryan’s when the stabbing occurred, said she heard voices that were getting louder.
“I heard screams and Arabic words. The only thing I could see was a red bag on the floor and an abaya. Then I saw a bloody hand holding a knife covered in blood,” she said.
A Filipina security guard said a cleaner had told her there was an argument in the ladies’ toilet.
“I ran to the area immediately and saw the handicapped stall locked,” the guard said.
“I knocked on the door and demanded they open it. Then I saw a knife sliding under the stall door. It was covered with blood.
“The door opened and a woman covered in an abaya came out. She was saying, ‘She is crazy’, and I didn’t understand what she meant.”
Another witness, I A, who works as a sales manager in one of the mall’s shops, heard screams in the toilet. She went in and saw women knocking on the stall door, and blood. She was frightened and ran out of the bathroom.
The court also heard that the bomb outside the apartment near the Corniche had been found by the doctor’s 14-year-old son.
The boy said he had seen a “strange object” that he thought might be a National Day toy, as he found it on December 1.
“Before I found the bomb I heard movement. It was around 4pm that same day,” he said. “But my mother and I didn’t find anything or anyone at the time.”
The doctor told the court that he had received a call from his wife about a bomb, which he thought might have been fireworks.
M H, 56, who is of Egyptian origin, said his wife’s description of the bomb was suspicious, and she also sent him a picture on WhatsApp.
“By the time I got to the building police had already asked residents to vacate their apartments. The bomb experts had already dismantled the bomb,” he said.
He said that two weeks before the incident, a woman wearing a niqab had knocked on his apartment door.
“My wife spoke to her in English,” the doctor said. “She wanted someone with a foreign name, and my wife said they could be on the 10th floor.
“The woman knocked again after 10 minutes and my wife only spoke to her from behind the door as she found the situation scary.”
A CID officer gave the court a black niqab, a black shayla and two pairs of black shoes as evidence during the hearing.
He said the defendant told him when police raided her house that she had worn the items when she committed the crimes.
In court, the defendant denied that the garments belonged to her.
The court was told that a test showed Ms Al Hashemi’s voice was identical to the one in an anonymous phone call to police on the day of the crimes.
The case was adjourned to May 18 when the court will look at a detailed medical report on Ms Al Hashemi’s mental state. Prosecution will also present its case.
aalkhoori@thenational.ae
