Murderer seeks release after 15 years in prison

Dubai: A Ukrainian woman, serving a life sentence for bludgeoning a prostitute to death in 1996, yesterday petitioned to be released on the grounds of good behaviour following 15 years in jail.

The 43-year-old petitioner, Tatiana G.B.L., was 28 years old at the time when she and her male accomplice killed the 27-year-old Uzbek prostitute, J.K., and took her money from her flat in Al Rifaa during the last week of 1996.

Wearing a pink prison uniform and headscarf, Tatiana appeared yesterday before the Dubai Court of First Instance that is looking into her special petition to be released after having served more than 15 years in jail out of her life sentence.

Tatiana's accomplice, identified as Y.V., was sentenced to death in 1998 and remains at large. Records did not identify his age or nationality.

Dubai prosecutors said Y.V. and Tatiana premeditatedly murdered J.K. when they jointly bludgeoned her skull with a hammer and stole her money and jewellery.

Y.V. was charged with being the pimp of Tatiana, who was accused of prostitution. The couple was also accused of having consensual sex.

In February 1998, the Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the defendants to death for premeditated murder associated with theft. Tatiana was additionally handed a three-year prison term for prostitution. Y.V. was handed five years in jail for pimping. In May 1998, the Appeal Court reduced Tatiana's capital punishment to life. Her three-year jail term was also reduced to one year followed by deportation.

Court records said the Ukrainian woman based her petition on Article 1/45 of the Federal Law No 43, of 1992, concerning regulating punitive and correctional establishments. The law stipulates that a convict who has completed 15 years out of a life sentence is entitled to file a special petition to be released from jail.

Recommendation

During yesterday's hearing, the judge said the petitioner obtained a good-behaviour certificate and a recommendation for her release [on the grounds of excellent behaviour] issued from the management of Dubai Central Jail.

She clubbed the certificate to her special petition that she lodged through the Dubai Public Prosecution. As per the Criminal Procedure Law, prosecutors refer the petition to the Court of First Instance to decide on whether to approve or reject the petitioner's request for a release.

Prosecutor Abdullah Ali Al Mazem asked the judge to dismiss the woman's plea saying "the Public Prosecution leaves the matter in the court's hands".

The court will announce its decision concerning the petition on April 24.

An Emirati policeman testified during the trial: "One of the victim's friends testified to the police that shortly before her death, J.K. claimed to that friend that the defendants were supposed to visit her in her flat. Police searched for Tatiana but it was discovered that she had checked out of her hotel surprisingly. Immigration records also showed that she left the country on December 25, 1996. Police communicated with Tatiana's friends, who successfully convinced her to return to Dubai. She was arrested at Dubai airport as soon as she came back in February 1997."

Loan

A Pakistani woman testified that Tatiana complained to her about her desperate and urgent need for money because she owed it to someone in her country.

"She claimed to me that she was obliged to return that loan before the end of 1996… she also told me that she came to Dubai with Y.V. and that she would not leave before securing the money," added the woman.

Editor's note:

There are discrepancies in the initials of the victim and the accomplice in the reports published in 1998 and the current report due to errors in translation