Abu Dhabi pastry shop owner beat partner to death on road, court hears

The Egyptian businessman's lawyer argued there was a contradiction between the defendant’s confessions and evidence of wounds to the victim’s body. 'This is probably a different corpse than that of the case we are facing trial for,' he said.

ABU DHABI // A pastry shop owner pushed his business partner out of a moving car and beat him to death on the road because he was sexually harassing him, a court has heard.

The Criminal Court was told that Egyptian A K was paid Dh250,000 by his alleged victim to invest in his pastry business. But a dispute arose soon after when the business partner began pestering A K for a sexual relationship. So, A K posted an advert in a newspaper looking for a new investor.

On December 20, A K said he received an insulting text message from his partner. He called the alleged victim but he did not answer. Then the next day he called A K and asked him to meet to give him back an amount of money.

They then met in front of Mushrif Mall to arrange dissolving their business partnership. “The victim turned up drunk and asked A K to go home with him, then they stopped to buy cigarettes on the way,” said A K’s lawyer, Tarek Al Serkal.

A K told him he had found a new business partner, to which the victim replied: “Money does not concern me, you are what counts.”

The partner then began to grope A K, so he punched him in the chest. They then drove to their pastry shop in Mussaffah to pick up the final cheque.

On the way the alleged victim began making derogatory comments about A K and the women in his family. “This provoked the defendant to hit him and push him out of the car, but when he saw him bleeding he stopped and helped him.” The alleged victim refused to stop the abusive language, so A K punched him again and drove away.

After driving for about a kilometre, he became worried so he made a U-turn and went back to check on him. “He apologised to him ... but the victim went on with his insults and sexual requests,” said the lawyer.

So A K hit him again, pushed him to the floor and drove away once more. According to medical report, the man died 30 minutes later from his injuries.

Mr Al Serkal, said there was a clear contradiction between the defendant’s confessions and evidence of wounds to the man’s body.

He said a medical report showed that the body was examined on December 30, while police say A K killed the man on December 31.

“The body was also burnt. This is probably a different corpse than that of the case we are facing trial for,” said Mr Al Serkal.

“Someone could have interfered during that time and caused the death,” he said, and insisted the confession was only made after his client was tortured by police.

He also said that as A K had not intended to kill the man, that there was no criminal intent. Also, police did not seriously investigate the claims of sexual harassment.

The dead man’s elderly mother attended court in a wheelchair and asked for “Allah’s legislation to apply”, referring to a death sentence.

Mr Al Serkal argued that A K should be acquitted or that the charge to be changed from murder to beating that led to death.

A verdict will be announced on June 18.