Dubai: A businessman on trial for killing his female friend said they were celebrating before a heated row turned violent, a Dubai Court of First Instance heard Tuesday.
The 40-year-old Lebanese defendant went to his countrywoman’s apartment in Motor City after coming from Abu Dhabi, and drank a bottle of vodka. He then assaulted her until she died of internal bleeding in the brain.
Police were alerted to the murder in July of last year when a female friend of the victim went to her flat after she failed to answer calls.
The Lebanese friend said she went to the apartment with her friend escorted by a security guard.
“The apartment door was open and I went inside with my friend,” said the 28-year-old. “I screamed when I found her body on the bed. I went outside the apartment crying and called police.”
A security guard told Dubai Police the defendant was seen heavily drunk after midnight while carrying two plastic bags full of glass bottles. The guard tried to help him when he found him intoxicated, but the accused refused the man’s help.
“Investigations revealed that the accused regularly visited the victim,” said a police officer. “He confessed that he went to the apartment and consumed alcohol when an argument happened between the two.
“She slapped him on the face and he slapped her back and then assaulted her. He claimed that she was bleeding and that he offered to take her to hospital, but she refused and he left the apartment.”
A forensics report said the woman, in her 40s, suffered multiple fractures to her skull, consistent with the woman’s head being repeatedly banged against a solid object.
The accused denied a charge of premeditated murder when he appeared in court.
“She beat me and I beat her,” he told the judge.
The trial has been adjourned until May 21 to assign a defence lawyer and summon witnesses.
