Court upholds death for man convicted over revenge killing

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation upheld the ruling of Al Ain Court of Appeal to convict a Gulf citizen of murder and to sentence him to death.

The defendant committed the murder in retaliation of another that took place 30 years ago.

The court also upheld the conviction of possessing unlicenced weapons and gunshots, desecrating holy places, threatening others and jeopardising their lives.

According to official records, the Abu Dhabi Public Prosecution referred the defendant to the Criminal Court on charges of premeditated murder on the grounds of retaliation.

The defendant decided to kill the victim and for this purpose he prepared a firearm and went to the victim’s area of residence.

He waited near the door of a mosque until he was certain that the victim was there. He was behind the victim when he shot him several times in the head and other parts of his body before running away and later surrendering to the police.

Investigations confirmed that the defendant had the intent to kill as evidenced by his confession, the testimony of witnesses and investigation reports, which showed that the victim raided the place of the incident to take revenge without taking into account the sanctity of the place of worship.

The public prosecution charged the defendant with possessing unlicenced firearm and ammunition, desecrating holy places and Islamic rituals by murdering the victim inside the mosque, threatening people of killing if they did not abstain from chasing him after running away and finally possessing and abusing psychotropic substances.

Recently in separte case the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation sentenced an Asian director to 10 years in jail and obligated him to pay Dhs200,000 in blood money to be followed by deportation on charges of murdering one of his employees during a fishing trip as he previously knew the victim could not swim.