Dubai’s highest court has overturned a businesswoman’s 10-year imprisonment that she was handed for killing her boyfriend and ordered a new trial before the Dubai Appeal Court.

In December, the Dubai Appeal Court upheld a 10-year jail term against the 35-year-old Russian businesswoman for stabbing to death her Palestinian lover in August 2014 after he refused to marry her.

Having pleaded not guilty before the appellate court, the woman was said to be drunk when she stabbed the victim and slept beside his corpse on her bed before she called the police the next day.

On Monday, the Dubai Cassation Court overturned the woman’s punishment and ordered a new panel of judges to hear the case in the Dubai Appeal Court.

Presiding judge Abdul Aziz Abdullah overturned the defendant’s punishment after her lawyer argued that his client had refuted any premeditated intention to kill her boyfriend and that she was not responsible for her actions due to her mental illness.

The woman contended in court that she loved the deceased, and that she had lent him Dh500,000 and bought him two cars.

Her lawyer argued before the Cassation Court that his client acted in self defence and she did not have any intent to kill the victim.

The lawyer asked the Cassation Court to overturn the judgement and refer the case for a fresh trial before the Appeal Court.

A policeman said the accused was found crying bitterly beside the victim’s body when they arrived at her flat where the crime happened.

A police lieutenant told the court that the defendant was drunk when she stabbed her boyfriend who was asleep.

“She said she slept on his chest till noon when she called the police,” said the lieutenant.

A Syrian friend, who was the last person to see the victim before his death, testified: “We left a coffee shop at 9pm. We met again at the same place at midnight and he seemed depressed and he told me that he was not feeling comfortable with the Russian woman any more. He told me he wanted to break up with her. Then we went to a pub. Later I called him at 3.30am and he told me that he was about to reach the flat. At noon the next day, the defendant told me over the phone that she had killed his friend. She was a jealous woman.”

A hearing will be scheduled before the Appeal Court soon.