A Dh100 bribe, a murdered child and Dubai’s first firing-squad execution

Dubai: A veteran Emirati legal figure who served as a police officer, public prosecutor, judge and later lawyer has offered a rare account of his three-decade journey through the UAE’s criminal justice system, recalling murder and rape cases, executions, family disputes, deportation cases, crime-prevention operations and the evolution of policing and prosecution in Dubai.

Speaking on the Qaf Noon podcast on Arabcast, Aref Boushaqer Al Falasi, a retired Brigadier, lawyer and legal consultant, described how his career took him through almost every stage of the criminal justice process — from the police station to the Public Prosecution, the judiciary and eventually private legal practice.

His experiences, he said, gave him a changing perspective on punishment, crime prevention and justice, while exposing him to some of the most difficult and consequential cases handled by Dubai’s law enforcement and judicial authorities.

Among the cases he recalled was the kidnapping, rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in the late 1990s , a case that became one of the most disturbing episodes in Dubai’s judicial history and, according to Al Falasi’s account, resulted in the emirate’s first execution by firing squad.

The case, believed to have occurred in 1996 or 1997, began with the disappearance of the child and ended with the execution of the man convicted of killing her.

But years later, one detail from the case remained particularly striking for those involved: the convicted killer reportedly spent seven minutes between the first volley of gunfire and the final shot that ended his life - the same length of time a forensic report said the young victim had suffered before she died.

The disappearance triggered an intensive search. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, personally visited the crime scene as police investigated the child’s whereabouts.

During the search, police tracking dogs repeatedly barked behind a particular villa. Officers searched the property but found no sign of the missing girl.

The reason for the dogs’ reaction emerged only after the child’s body was discovered days later.

Municipal sanitation workers found the girl’s body inside a cardboard box that had been thrown into a rubbish container.

A post-mortem examination established that the child had been sexually assaulted before being strangled.

Investigators later pieced together what had happened.

The killer had taken the girl to an area behind the villa, where he assaulted and strangled her. He then placed her body inside a cardboard box in an attempt to dispose of it.

Blood had been left on the sand inside the villa. The killer reportedly used a piece of cardboard to sweep up the blood-stained sand and scatter it outside.

It was this trace of blood that the police dogs had detected during the initial search.

The investigation led police to an Asian man who confessed to having witnessed the crime.

He identified the principal perpetrator and told investigators that he had watched what happened without intervening.

According to the account recalled by Al Falasi, the accomplice had accepted Dh100 from the killer in return for remaining silent.

The principal suspect, meanwhile, had fled the UAE after the crime.

Investigators continued pursuing him, eventually locating him abroad and securing his arrest before he was extradited to Dubai to face trial.

The prosecution was personally led in court by then attorney general Ibrahim Bu Melha.

The court ultimately sentenced the principal perpetrator to death and the accomplice to 15 years in prison for concealing the crime.

Before the death sentence was carried out, Al Falasi and the attorney general visited the prisoners.

The convicted killer continued to deny committing the crime.

The accomplice, however, broke down.

He placed his hand on the Quran and wept over the consequences of his decision to accept Dh100 and remain silent.

He reportedly said that spending 15 years in prison for Dh100 was an unbearable punishment and that he wished he had been executed alongside the principal offender.

The contrasting reactions , the killer maintaining his innocence and the accomplice expressing regret , remained among the details remembered by those involved in the case.

The execution was scheduled to take place in an open desert area of Al Ruwaiyah.

Those present included Al Falasi, the attorney general, a religious scholar and a military firing squad. A cardiologist from Rashid Hospital was also brought to attend the execution and determine whether the sentenced man had died.

The victim’s mother was waiting in a vehicle nearby.

She was asked whether she wanted to pardon the killer.

According to the account, she refused.

She said she had spent six months unable to sleep while waiting for justice for her daughter.

When the first volley of gunfire was fired, she regarded the punishment as having been carried out and left the scene.

But the execution did not go as expected.

The cardiologist attending the execution was reportedly nervous because it was his first time witnessing such a procedure.

He mistakenly positioned the target sticker away from the condemned man’s heart.

As a result, the initial volley failed to kill him.

The man remained alive and bleeding on the ground.

Al Falasi then ordered the firing squad to deliver the final shot, described in the account as a “mercy shot”, to the head.

The execution was completed.

After returning to his office, Al Falasi requested the forensic report on the murdered child.

He wanted to review the details of her death and ensure that the official record was complete.

The report contained a detail that would later become one of the most haunting aspects of the case.

According to the forensic assessment, the nine-year-old girl had remained alive for approximately six to seven minutes after the assault before she died from strangulation.

Al Falasi then considered the timing of the execution.

From the first, incorrectly positioned volley to the final shot that killed the convicted man, seven minutes had passed.

The coincidence left a profound impression on those involved.

The man responsible for the child’s death had, unintentionally and because of an error during the execution, spent almost exactly the same amount of time between the first attempt on his life and his death as the young victim had reportedly endured before she died.

For Al Falasi, the seven-minute interval became a striking and deeply unsettling detail in a case that had already left a lasting mark on Dubai’s legal history.

The case was remembered not only for the brutality of the crime and the severity of the sentence, but also for the chain of events surrounding it  ,from the search behind the villa and the discovery of the blood trail, to the international pursuit of the accused, the courtroom proceedings and, finally, an execution whose timing appeared to echo the suffering recorded in the victim’s forensic report.