Life in prison for caregiver who killed elderly Emirati

Defendant used a waist-wrapper known as ezar, to strangle his victim

The 30-year-old defendant denied a premeditated murder charge in August last year. The National

A caregiver has been sentenced to life in prison for killing an elderly Emirati man at his Dubai home.

The Pakistani defendant, 30, strangled the man using the victim’s ezar - a long waist-wrapper worn under the kandura.

The incident happened on June 15 last year, after the man’s wife went shopping, leaving her diabetic husband in the defendant’s care.

Two hours later, the defendant called and informed the woman that her husband had died.

She hurried back home and met the defendant as she was entering the villa.

“He told me my husband was unconscious, not dead,” the Iranian woman, 42, told the court.

She found her husband on the ground next to the fridge, inside their two-bedroom apartment attached to the villa in the Hor Al Anz area.

“I thought he had fallen because it had happened before,” she said.

She called an ambulance thinking her husband was still alive. She also called her two stepsons.

The man’s sons arrived and one of them rushed to hug and kiss his father.

“When the brother was hugging him, I noticed a piece of cloth and the ezar around my father’s neck,” said the son, 22.

“I asked the worker about what happened but he [the defendant] just laughed.”

He gave an account of the incident to the police officers when they arrived. The officers looked for the defendant but couldn't find him. The caregiver was tracked down and arrested the following day in the same area.

Investigations found he had worked as a gardener for a company in Dubai but absconded around seven months before he started working for the family.

“During questioning, he claimed he had been repeatedly abused by the victim,” a policeman said.

On the day of the incident, he said he was assaulted by the elderly man who allegedly tried to strangle him with his own ezar because he took too long to prepare him tea and shisha.

“He claimed he acted in self-defence and snatched the ezar from the victim’s hand then used another piece of cloth tossed aside to strangle his victim,” said the officer.

In August last year, the defendant denied a premeditated murder charge in court.

On Tuesday, he was sentenced to life in prison, which will be followed by deportation.