Dubai: A court on Sunday rejected a man's appeal to reduce his life sentence for killing his mistress's husband and instead imposed the death sentence.
The Dubai Appeal Court cancelled the 23-year-old Sri Lankan man's life sentence and imposed the death sentence after Presiding Judge Mahmoud Fahmi convicted him of premeditated murder of the husband, J.P.
"The court overruled the convict, R.K.'s, appeal to reduce his punishment and approved the Dubai Public Prosecution's appeal to stiffen the punishment. The jury has unanimously agreed to hand the convict capital punishment," said Presiding Judge Fahmi during yesterday's judgment.
The appeals verdict remains subject to a ruling by the Cassation Court within 30 days.
Prosecutors had charged R.K. with killing J.P. in a fit of rage when he saw him and his wife walking hand-in-hand. When the accused appeared in court, he said: "I did quarrel with him and he fought me and I fought back … but I didn't intend to kill him. I am not guilty."
Prosecution records quoted an Emirati lieutenant as testifying that when he questioned the wife, she confessed that she was the mistress of R.K., who she also accused of killing her husband. "She claimed that she was afraid of reporting R.K. because he was her lover and she said the defendant stabbed J.P. because he was sleeping with her," claimed the lieutenant.
According to the arraignment sheet, R.K. was jealous so he decided to kill the husband. One night he waited for J.P. in a narrow, poorly-lit alley.
He was outraged when he saw the husband and wife walking hand-in-hand. He then stabbed the husband in the back. J.P. chased R.K. and fought him before he could run away, but the defendant stabbed him in the chest and neck and fled, according to records.
The lieutenant said the murder took place in Al Jafliya. "Initially, the wife claimed that an African man stabbed her husband. We widened our investigations until some witnesses disclosed to us that R.K. was the wife's workmate and they were having an affair. When we summoned her for questioning, the wife admitted that the 23-year-old accused killed her husband," the lieutenant said.
An Emirati first corporal said: "Our investigations revealed that a Sri Lankan suspect, S.P., bought a plane ticket for R.K., who was hiding in The Springs at a woman T.K.'s house. Meanwhile, the suspect's mother, M.P., was aware of what her son did and she tried to help him leave the country." The judgment is automatically appealed on behalf of the prosecution and the convict under the Criminal Procedures Law.
