Trio who murdered man ask for early release after serving 15 years

Indians are serving a life sentence for the murderin 2001 of a countryman who they grew tired of his threats to tell police about their bootlegging operation.

DUBAI // Three Indians who were sentenced to life in jail 15 years ago for the premeditated murder of their compatriot have appealed for an early release for good conduct.

The trio, aged 50, 42 and 38, were convicted of murdering the man, whose age was not given, at dawn on December 27, 2001 after the victim threatened to report them to police for bootlegging and demanded they pay him money to keep him quite. They were also convicted of hiding the man’s body then dumping it and with consuming and possessing alcohol as well as overstaying their visas.

On the night of the murder, the three men were intoxicated when they sneaked into the victim’s room in Naif and dragged him from bed as he slept. One of them tied up his legs while the other two hit him on the head with solid objects then the third joined them by wrapping a plastic rope around the man’s neck and strangled him to death.

The body was wrapped in plastic then placed in a cardboard television box before being dumped in a car park in Al Hamriya.

Police were notified about the dead body and investigations revealed that one of trio was the victim’s friend. Upon visiting his flat, which he shared with the two others, police noticed that their TV was the same brand as the one on the box in which the dead body was found. Two of them implicated the third man, who was later arrested in Ajman.

During investigations, the three men individually admitted that they planned the murder after they were fed up with the victim’s demands to pay him money, buy his phone credit and meals, or else he would report them to police.

Prosecutors said that the trio planned the murder two days before it happened.

At Dubai Criminal Court in November 2002, they were sentenced to life in jail, a sentence upheld by appeals and cessation courts.

On Thursday morning the three convicts applied at Dubai Criminal Court for an early release after obtaining good conduct certificates from the corrective and punitive establishments in Dubai. They have already served 15 years and four months of their sentence.

The court will give its verdict on May 8.