Sharjah: Investigation into the murder of a German man who had disappeared in June last year has revealed a complicated web of sex, deceit and wild claims of terror financing.
The decomposed body of Martin Herbert Steiner, a 48-year-old, was found after 15 days by police stuffed in a suitcase and dumped along the Dubai-Hatta road.
Two people were later arrested. Shahid King Poliss, an American in his mid-thirties, has been charged with premeditated murder while his Ethiopian partner Fawziya Nigash Yousuf is being charged with aiding and abetting the crime, theft and having an illicit affair.
Steiner's relatives are calling for the death sentence against the American suspect, who has been seeking the family's pardon, according to his lawyer, Badr Al Gurg of Horizons Advocates and Legal Consultants. The victim's family in Germany rejected the plea, the lawyer told Gulf News.
"The Sharjah Sharia Court of First Instance which was seeking the parents' pardon on the suspect's behalf will issue its verdict soon," Al Gurg said.
According to details obtained by Gulf News, Poliss, a convert to Islam, entered the country on a visit visa using a forged British passport. He launched a website which promoted sex with men and women. He shaved his beard and posed as a gay person on the website. The Ethiopian woman, Fawziya, contacted Poliss after reading a newspaper advertisement for a housemaid.
They started an affair and she moved to live with him. The suspect posted Fawziya's picture on his website describing her as a woman from the Middle East offering sex for money.
Fifth 'customer'
Al Gurg said Poliss convinced Fawziya to offer sexual services to customers, the money received which was to be chanelled to Al Qaida terror network.
According to the lawyer, the website ad lured Steiner, who happened to be the fifth "customer".
Poliss is married to two women - the first an American of Jordanian origin and mother of his five children who lives in the US. The other wife is British of Somali origin who has come to the UAE to support her husband.
Police found in his possession CDs that contain information on how to make poisonous chemical substances and drugs.
They also found on the suspect's cell phone pictures of girls aged less than eight sitting on his bed.
