Three year imprisonment confirmed against killer of sex worker

Dubai: The highest court here on Monday upheld a three-year prison term handed down to a salesman found guilty of killing a Chinese sex worker in 2003.

The Dubai Cassation Court's Presiding Judge Mohammad Nabeel Riyadh yesterday upheld the three-year jail sentence issued to the 27-year-old Syrian, Ahmad Mohammad Al Qawaf (A.M.), who had been found guilty for the premeditated killing of sex worker, Z.L. .

The Dubai Appeals Court had earlier reduced Al Qawaf's primary judgment of 15 years in jail, to three years.

The convict's lawyer Yasser Al Naqbi argued before the Cassation Court that his client did not have any criminal intention. "My client should be pronounced innocent," Al Naqbi said. "He suffers a mental and psychological illness. The Appeals Court committed a mistake when it confiscated our right to defend our client and approve our request to have the defendant examined by specialised doctors. Besides, the law enforcement procedures were carried out unlawfully against the defendant… My client was beaten up and coerced to confess."

Prosecutors said Al Qawaf was arrested in July, 2009 in Ajman because his fingerprints matched those at the murder scene.

The Dubai Court of First Instance found him guilty, although the accused had denied the charges.

The Cassation Court also upheld the deportation order against the convict. He will be deported after the completion of his jail term.

The Appeals Court reduced imprisonment term under article 98 of the Federal Penal Code.