Bomb belt woman in Dubai sentenced to seven years in jail

DUBAI // The Uzbek woman who threatened to blow up the Public Prosecution building with a bomb belt has been sentenced to seven years in jail.

Zulfiya Hamraeva, 33, started screaming loudly when the verdict was announced at the criminal court on Wednesday morning.

“Allah Akbar, Allah is sufficient for me and He is the best guardian,” she repeatedly said.

Court security officers emptied the packed courtroom except for Hamraeva and her 10-year-old son until she calmed down.

The judge also ordered her to be deported following her sentence.

Her accomplice, Emirati M Y, 28, was jailed for two years for aiding and abetting her by making the device.

Both defendants will be given the opportunity to appeal against their sentence.

At midday on September 1 last year, Hamraeva walked up to the reception desk of the building accompanied by her son, then opened her abaya to reveal the belt.

She claimed the child was the result of an affair with an Emirati and threatened to detonate the explosive unless a paternity test was carried out.

After negotiations with police she eventually gave herself up. The bomb belt was later found to be an elaborate fake.

During the subsequent court hearings, the alleged father of the child, J S A, said he had met Hamraeva in 2003 and 10 days later she claimed she was pregnant by him.

She filed a lawsuit against the Emirati in Ajman, to prove his paternity, but she lost and was jailed for a month.

Then in 2007, she filed another lawsuit in Sharjah, but the court refused to hear the case based on the earlier Ajman ruling.

J S A said that on August 10, she had sent him a picture of the explosive belt but he did not take her threats seriously.

While this case was being heard, Hamraeva was also tried in a separate case for threatening a policewoman while in prison.

For this offence, she was given another month in jail.