Bomb-belt woman and accomplice were married, Dubai court told

DUBAI // The woman accused of threatening to blow up the Dubai Public Prosecution building with a bomb belt had been married to the man accused of making the device, a court was told.

Dubai Criminal Court had heard previously that the woman, Zulfiya Hamraeva, 33, from Uzbekistan, was also married to another man who she says is the father of her 10-year-old son.

The court has been told that she threatened to detonate the explosive belt on September 1 last year to force the second man to take a paternity test. Both men involved in the case are Emirati.

The wife of the man accused of making the bomb belt told the court on Sunday that he had been married to Hamraeva.

“At first, I didn’t care if he had married her, but when I started receiving threatening phone calls and texts from her, I got frightened, and I asked him again if he married her. He said yes.”

She insisted her husband had offered no help to Hamraeva. “There was a grudge between my husband and her, she sent him many threatening text messages. How can my husband help her if she was always threatening him?”

The man’s sister said she too had received phone and text threats from Hamraeva.

In closing arguments, her lawyer explained why Hamraeva had carried out the bomb threat. "She had been under a lot of psychological stress. She wanted desperately to get the father to admit that her boy was his son. She didn't mean to harm anyone, all she wanted to do was bring her case to light."

The Emirati accused’s lawyer said: “Zulfiya Hamraeva holds a grudge against my client because of financial issues and she repeatedly threatened him with phone and text messages. She also fabricated his role in the crime for the purpose of revenge.”

The lawyer asked that records of phone calls and text messages received by the Emirati and his wife and sister be admitted as evidence.

The court will issue its verdict on March 5.