Addict who hid woman’s body wins mercy

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A drug addict who injected his girlfriend with a fatal heroin dose and anxiously disposed of her body to dodge legal action has won a lenient punishment.

The unemployed Arab man, 35, facilitated heroin abuse to the Emirati woman after which he injected her with an overdose that claimed her life on Mar.22.2018, prosecutors revealed.

To evade legal accountability, he took her body to a farmland in Ajman where he stashed it inside an electricity room. He had abused morphine, hashish, amphetamine and methamphetamine.

He was found in possession of a paper roll stuffed with 0.04 grammes of heroin, as per records at the Rashidiyah Police Station. The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced him to 25 years in jail plus deportation.

He appealed for leniency while arguing, “I consumed drugs but did not facilitate consumption to her. The heroin belonged to both of us.” The Dubai Appeals Court has commuted the life sentence to seven years. In prosecution records, an Emirati police captain narrated that he was on duty in the lost and missing persons section when the deceased’s mother contacted complaining that she left home and went missing.

Police officers initiated a search and investigation campaign into the reason the deceased was missing, and her whereabouts. They learnt that the defendant was the last person she was spotted with.

On Mar.27 a source alerted investigators that the defendant was in Al Aweer. Cops rushed to apprehend him. On being questioned he said he had been in a relationship with her for a long period.

He explained that they met on Mar.22 and abused narcotic and psychoactive drugs inside his car after which she experienced convulsions and passed away. He started thinking about how to dispose of the body.

He feared punitive action in case authorities discovered he was the one who injected her with the lethal dose. He transported the body to Ajman where he dumped it in Halyu area then returned to Dubai. A report from the police’s forensic department dated Mar.28 showed there was no assault or violence sign on her body. The report further showed she had died five days before the body’s discovery – pointing to the date of the incident.

Coroners examined her blood sample and confirmed she died of a heroin overdose that caused her brain and heart to malfunction. A similar fatal percentage concentration was detected in her urine sample. Police seized a heroin-stained syringe from the defendant.