Defence claims missing Kerry, brother plotting against client

Dubai: A lawyer has claimed that South African Kerry Winter and her brother conspired against his British client, who has been charged with premeditatedly killing her.

"Kerry has not appeared until today… she [who has been described by prosecutors as a murder victim whose body has not been found yet] and her brother plotted against my 43-year-old client, M.A., because he had a new woman in his life," Yousuf Hamad said in his defence outline before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.

"The claimants in civil right [who are representing Kerry] tried to drag the new woman's name in the case and implicate her."

M.A. had pleaded not guilty and denied the charges of premeditatedly killing Kerry, then tying weights to her body and dumping her in the sea.

Hamad described the law enforcement procedures carried out against his client as illegal.

"He didn't have any motive to kill her. Police coerced him to confess. I personally was not allowed to meet him until after the police pressured him and coerced him to admit a premeditated murder which he did not commit," Hamad said before Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad.

"Prosecutors failed to corroborate the evidence... Prosecution witnesses gave inconsistent statements. Criminal investigators did not find any fingerprints or traces of Kerry on M.A.'s boat… prosecutors and police alleged that after he killed her with the baseball bat, he kept her body on his boat," he added.

"The criminal investigation lab's report confirmed that no trace or fingerprints of her were found on the deck."

Advocate Hussain Al Jaziri, representing the Winters in civil right, said the suspect dumped her body at sea "to make it difficult for police dogs... to sniff out her body or [find] any trace".

"We ask the court to indict the suspect who has committed a [alleged] gruesome murder and which inflicted huge emotional and psychological damages to Kerry's brother," Al Jaziri said.

The verdict is due to be delivered on May 17.