Dubai: An Emirati man and his mistress were on trial on Wednesday for illegally grounding his two daughters in a flat, and torturing one to death and injuring the other.
The 29-year-old Emirati man, Hamad S., and his 27-year-old mistress, Al Onoud A., will be tried before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
Dubai’s Attorney General Essam Eisa al Humaidan said they are seeking a capital punishment against the couple for illegally confining Hamad’s eight-year-old daughter Wudeema and torturing her with different means of brutality and aggression that led to her death.
They also tortured Wudeema’s younger sister, seven-year-old Meera, and caused her 10 per cent permanent disability.
The defendants confessed during prosecution questioning that they beat and tortured the girls to discipline them because they were disobedient.
Last month, the Dubai Misdemeanour Court jailed Hamad and Al Onoud for one year each after they pleaded guilty to having consensual sex. They claimed that they had consensual sex upon a marriage contract but they did not produce the purported marriage contract.
Senior Chief Prosecutors Mohammad Ali Rustom, Head of Family and Juveniles Prosecution, said earlier that primary investigations exposed that the so-called marriage contract was unofficial.
Presiding Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi is expected to hear the first batch of prosecution witnesses in courtroom seven today.
Al Humaidan said Wudeema and Meera were grounded in their father’s flat where they were unlawfully confined, tortured and scorched with several tools over a period close to six months.
Prosecutors accused the father and his crime partner with using extensive force and torturing the girls and burning their bodies with an ironing machine and electric prods.
They also poured hot water on their bodies.
