Lovers and two friends on death row for man's murder

Sharjah: A woman, her boyfriend and two friends are on death row for the brutal murder of the woman's husband, according to a court official.

Sharjah Appeal Court confirmed the death sentence against three men and one woman for murdering the husband so the woman could marry her lover, the official told Gulf News on Monday.

The accused have all been held at Sharjah Central Jail since 2003.

In that time they have launched two unsuccessful appeals and had their sentence re-confirmed twice by the UAE Supreme Court.

Police said the man, an Emirati policeman in his 20s, was killed after going to meet his wife Khowla on the beach in the Al Hira area of Sharjah.

The woman had also asked her lover, an Emirati in his late 20s called Fahd, to come to the same place so he could kill her husband.

Fahad was joined by two of his friends – two 17-year-olds called Mukhtar and Abdullah Hussain – and the three of them grabbed the victim from behind, restrained him and stabbed him several times.

According to police, the three then ran away leaving the victim bleeding for more than an hour before the wife contacted police, claiming that unidentified robbers attacked him.

After an investigation, she admitted the crime while her three partners were all arrested by police the following day.

The Sharia court of first instance found them all guilty of premeditated murder and they were all sentenced to death.

The killers appealed the death sentence pleading, but the sentence was confirmed twice by the Sharjah appeal court and the Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi.

However, the parents of the victim refused and are still refusing to pardon the murderers and have asked for Qisas (death sentence).

The victim's mother who passed away after the murder of her son asked her children while she was on her death bed not to pardon the killers after her death.