Dubai: The death sentence against 30-year-old Emirati, Rashid Al Rashidi, was finalised on Monday, after Dubai's highest court convicted him of raping and killing a four-year-old boy.
Al Rashidi came a step closer to execution after the Dubai Cassation Court confirmed the death sentence against him. He was convicted of the rape and premeditated murder of the 4-year-old Pakistani boy Mousa Mukhtiar Ahmad in the washroom of a mosque on the first day of Eid Al Adha in November.
"The means of executing him will be decided by the Ruler after he approves the verdict. I cannot specify whether he will be hanged or face a firing squad ... we will forward the case file to the Ruler, who will specify how shall the execution be carried out after approving the verdict," Khalifa Bin Deemas, First Attorney General and Head of the Attorney General's Technical Office, told Gulf News on Monday.
Status of the death row cases
Chart of pending death row cases
Psychiatric experts have testified that although Al Rashidi is a paedophile, obsessed with boys, he is stable and sane.
Al Rashidi was arrested soon after he raped and killed the boy on November 27.
Bin Deemas explained that the Criminal Procedure Law does not specify how a death sentence is carried out.
However it is known that firing squads carry out the death sentence (after rulers' approvals) in the UAE.
According to the Criminal Procedures Law, the attorney general refers the file to the Ruler for approval.
The convict has the right to meet his or her family on the same day of the execution, away from the place where the punishment will be carried out.
In April, advocate Abdul Rahman Al Mudharreb, acting on behalf of Al Rashidi, pleaded for leniency and asked the Dubai Appeals Court to commute his client's death sentence to a sentence of life in jail, 25 years, according to the UAE Penal Code.
"According to article 98 of the Federal Penal Code, we ask the court to reduce Al Rashidi's death sentence to life imprisonment. Otherwise, we ask the court to assign a committee of psychologists and sociologists from the Emirates Psychologists Association to examine Al Rashidi's mental, social, financial and educational conditions.
"When I met him in prison, he strongly [denied having] any intention to kill the boy. He alleged that he did not beat [the boy] on his head and argued that he gagged [the boy] to stop him from crying and shouting," Al Mudharreb argued.
The Appeals Court, however, rejected the appeal and upheld the death sentence
For capital punishment to be carried out, it has to be unanimously approved by 11 judges, three in the First Instance Court, three in the Appeals Court and five in the Cassation Court.
The case has attracted unprecedented media and public interest and psychiatric experts have testified that although Al Rashidi is a paedophile obsessed with boys, he is stable and sane.
Al Rashidi was arrested soon after he raped and killed the boy on November 27, the first day of Eid Al Adha.
In April, advocate Abdul Rahman Al Mudharreb, acting on behalf of Al Rashidi, pleaded for leniency and asked the Dubai Appeals Court to commute his client’s death sentence to a sentence of life in jail (25 years, according to the UAE Penal Code).
"According to article 98 of the Federal Penal Code, we ask the court to reduce Al Rashidi’s death sentence to life imprisonment. Otherwise, we ask the court to assign a committee of psychologists and sociologists from the Emirates Psychologists Association to examine Al Rashidi’s mental, social, financial and educational conditions. When I met him in prison, he strongly [denied having] any intention to kill the boy. He alleged that he did not beat [the boy] on his head and argued that he gagged [the boy] to stop him from crying and shouting,” Al Mudharreb argued during that hearing.
The Appeals Court, however, rejected the appeal and upheld the death sentence.
According to the UAE law, the Public Prosecution automatically appeals a death sentence before the higher court. The verdict is then appealed a second and final time before Dubai's highest court, the Court of Cassation.
