Suspect in Kerry Winter case pleads not guilty

Dubai: The 42-year-old suspect in the Kerry Winter murder trial has pleaded not guilty to the charge of deliberately killing the South African woman.

"No& I am not guilty," argued the 42-year-old premeditated murder suspect, M.A., when he defended himself before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.

The Public Prosecution charged M.A. with preplanning the alleged murder and killing 36-year-old Kerry Winter. Her body hasn't been recovered since her disappearance on August 20. According to the arraignment sheet, M.A. prepared the bat with which he beat her on the head then tied weights to her body and dumped her in the sea.

An Emirati police major, who questioned M.A., testified: "He admitted that he beat her and she fell unconscious& then he put her in her car and drove to the desert.

He claimed that she woke up and they chatted for a while before they slept and then he discovered her dead when he woke up. He confessed to me that he took her in his boat and threw her body in the sea."

The trial continues.