Court trashes killers’ early release request

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Three bootleggers who slayed a man when he threatened to report them must see out the remaining nine years of their 25-year-jail term, a court ruled on Monday.

The Asian mastermind, 49, his aide, 41, and a countryman, 37, murdered the Indian victim and stashed his body.

In 2002 the Criminal Court jailed them for life over murder and hiding the body.

It caged them for six months plus deportation over bootlegging and alcohol abuse.

They sought to challenge the ruling at the Appeals Court. However, the court’s jury upheld the punishment in 2003.

They served 14 years in jail and on April 13, 2017 returned to the Criminal Court and expressed remorse. They requested the jury for leniency and early release. However, the jury rejected their pleas.

On Sept.9 this year they entreated the jury for mercy, saying they had no one at home to look after their children. Nonetheless, the Criminal Court on Monday ordered them to serve the remaining years.

In Naif Police Station records, the mastermind who employed the aide and countryman in the alcohol distribution business got into contact with the Indian victim (Ali) two months before the murder.

Ali vowed to alert police if the mastermind did not pay for his silence. He blackmailed him for monthly payments, phone recharge cards and meals. He sometimes stayed at his flat in Frij Murar area.

A week before the murder he demanded Dhs200 daily. Both disputed. The mastermind and his employees resolved to get rid of Ali when he was asleep inside the flat at around 1.30am on Dec.28, 2001.

The mastermind and countryman punched his forehead and strangled him. He resisted. The aide tied his feet. The mastermind smothered him with a pillow. The countryman strangled him with a rope.

They fastened his head on his feet, packed him in a nylon bag, crammed him in a TV carton and sealed it. The mastermind called a friend for a vehicle. They told him the carton contained alcohol waste.

They carried the carton into the friend’s vehicle. Both the aide and countryman escorted the friend to a parking lot behind a post office in Hamriyah area where they dumped the carton and went on the run. An Emirati lieutenant and a captain said police received an alert about a dead body inside a nylon cargo bag in a TV carton. Investigations revealed he used to stay inside a flat rented by the mastermind.