Dubai: A man has been accused of killing his girlfriend by drowning her in the bathtub of her Dubai apartment after he claimed that he was trying to get rid of an “evil spirit” that had “possessed” her.
Dubai Court of Appeal has upheld the life-in-jail verdict issued by the Court of First Instance earlier this year. The case has been referred to Dubai Cassation Court for a final judgement. The defendant will be deported after serving his jail sentence.
According to the official records of Dubai Courts, the expatriate defendant was involved in a romantic relationship with the victim for three years. In March last year, the pair had a severe dispute as the defendant was allegedly having affairs with other women and was also stalking the victim most of the time.
The victim tried to break the relationship when the defendant told her friends that she was “possessed by a djinn” and that he was the only one who could “rescue” her.
The defendant then went to the victim’s apartment in the Al Barsha area of Dubai after consuming hashish. He physically assaulted the victim, before filling the bathtub with water and drowning her. After five hours, he took her out of the bathtub, put her on the ground and called for the ambulance, claiming the victim had committed suicide.
A friend of the woman testified that the couple had fallen in love, but they had disputes recently because the defendant was stalking her all the time and had affairs with other women. “He claimed that she was possessed by a djinn and asked me to convince her that he was the only person who could save her. My friend was planning for her future life and didn’t commit suicide,” said the friend on official record.
A neighbour of the victim told Dubai Police that she had heard the couple screaming before she heard a reading aloud of the Quran. “At midnight, I heard a woman begging him not to kill her. I was hearing noises of someone assaulting another,” said the woman.
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A Dubai Police official said the defendant called in the ambulance, saying his girlfriend had committed suicide. He noticed signs of assaults on the body and the defendant told him that he was trying to get rid of the “evil spirit”.
“He was in unusual condition. He claimed that she was possessed by djinns and that he was trying to help her. He watched videos on this issue and on the night of the incident, he was reading the Quran as she drowned in the bathtub. He claimed that he beat her to expel the evil spirit,” said the Emirati policeman on record.
