Dubai: Two women, serving life sentences since 1998 for the murder of a woman for whom they worked as prostitutes, were denied an early release on Wednesday.

The two women, Marina V., an Uzbek, and Emilia T., a Kazakh, have been serving a life sentence in Dubai Central Jail for murdering the Russian woman, who ran a brothel, after dousing her body with benzene and burning it beyond recognition.

For the second time in one year, the Dubai Court of First Instance rejected the petitioners’ plea for an early release due to the severity and gruesomeness of their crime.

In July 2013, the petitioners were denied a similar plea.

“The court has decided to reject the convicts’ plea for an early release,” said presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi on Wednesday.

Seated in their pink prison dress at the back of courtroom three, the two women seemed in shock when they heard that their petitions had been rejected. Marina mentioned in her written plea that they had spent more than 15 years behind bars.

“We repented and our attitude and behaviour have completely changed. We have become new individuals,” she said.

As per Article 45 of Law No 43 of 1992 on Regulating Punitive and Reformative Establishments, Marina and Emilia lodged their pleas before the court seeking an early release completing more than 15 years of their jail term.

As per the law, the women waited for a year to pass [since their first petition in July 2013] before lodging their second plea in September.

Records said Emilia, Marina and a Jordanian man, Ali R., ganged up against the victim while she slept in her bedroom and attacked her with kitchen knives. When they realised that she was still breathing, Ali suffocated her with a pillow and they continued stabbing her. The trio wrapped the victim’s body in a blanket and put the corpse inside a big plastic bag which they kept on top of the building.

Later they transferred her body to Ajman and put it in a deserted villa.

Emilia purchased benzene from a nearby petrol station and they doused the body and burnt it. The trio went back to the flat in Dubai, thereafter, and drank liquor.

The defendants also stole the victim’s money and belongings.

Prosecutors asked the court to dismiss their petitions for early release due to the “hideous crime that horrified society”.