Sharjah: The Abu Dhabi Federal Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence against an American who murdered a German businessman four years ago, Gulf News has learnt.
The Abu Dhabi Supreme Court ordered the Sharjah Appeal Court to hold a retrial of Shahid King Poliss with a new panel of judges.
Judicial sources told Gulf News that the Supreme Court said that there must be a retrial for the accused, on the basis that there were mistakes in implementing the law.
Court sources said Poliss, in his mid-30s, was sentenced to death in 2007 after being convicted of premeditated murder in 2006, while his Ethiopian partner Fawzia Nigash Yousuf, was convicted of aiding and abetting the crime, theft and having an illicit affair and was sentenced to three years in jail.
The woman was later deported.
The suspects were accused of murdering Martin Herbert Steiner, a 48 year old German businessman in June 2006.
He had been reported missing and his decomposed body was found 15 days later by police, stuffed in a suitcase near the Dubai-Hatta road.
Poliss had entered the country on a visit visa using a forged British passport, according to sources.
Poliss was alleged to have a website where women were advertised for sexual services.
He shaved his beard and posed as a gay person on the website. Fawzia contacted Poliss after reading a newspaper advertisement for a housemaid, it was reported.
Poliss and Fawziya started an affair and she moved in with him.
The suspect posted Fawziya's picture on his website describing her as a woman from the Middle East offering sex for money. Steiner was her fifth customer.
According to police, Poliss, who is being detained at Sharjah central jail, attempted to escape but failed.
