Dubai: A court on Sunday stiffened the punishment against a British manager for the premeditated killing of his ex-girlfriend, 36-year-old South African Kerry Winter.
The Dubai Appeal Court sentenced 43-year-old manager, M.A., to life in prison instead of 15 years imprisonment.
"The court confirms that the claimant's in civil right [Kerry's blood parents] have dropped their appeal before the court. The primary judgment [15 years in jail] has also been cancelled and the accused [M.A.] will spend a life sentence followed by deportation," said Presiding Judge Eisa Al Sharif upon pronouncing yesterday's judgment in courtroom 20.
Sunday's verdict remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
M.A. defended that all what was published about his case was based on inaccuracies, false facts and biased coverage which incited the public opinion against him.
Meanwhile, the Winter's lawyer Hussain Al Jaziri argued in Appeal Court earlier that M.A. "killed Kerry and her family as well."
"The convict killed the Winter family because they will be living in pain and anguish forever. It is doubted that the body would ever be recovered," Al Jaziri said.
M.A.'s lawyer Yousuf Hammad defended that his client lacked any motive to murder Kerry. "This is an unprecedented case which Kerry fabricated against my client under the orchestration of others [Hammad didn't name anyone]. Law enforcement procedures were unlawfully carried out against M.A. Police coerced him to confess. Prosecutors failed to corroborate the evidence," argued Hammad.
In June, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted M.A. of battering Kerry with a baseball bat and killing her before he placed her body in a big bag, which he tied with weights and weighed it down in the ocean. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail followed by deportation.
The court referred the civil compensation claim of Dh400,000 [Dh200,000 in temporary compensation and Dh200,000 in blood money] to the Dubai Civil Court as per article 26 of the Federal Procedures Law.
