Businessman jailed for five years for killing friend

The attack happened in Dubai in July last year

A businessman who killed a female friend in a heated argument has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Dubai Criminal Court heard how the Lebanese defendant, 40, assaulted the woman on July 25 last year.

A friend of the victim alerted police officers when she discovered the victim lying dead on her bed in her apartment in Motor City.

“I found the door of her flat open so I went inside and found her dead on the bed,” the witness, 28, told the court.

“I screamed and ran out of the apartment crying and then called police.”

Officers investigating the incident interviewed the apartment building security guard who revealed he had seen the defendant drunk on the night of the attack.

When police arrested the man he admitted fighting with the victim after drinking alcohol.

“He told us that she [the victim] slapped him and he slapped her back before launching his attack,” a police officer told the court.

“He also told us that when he saw her bleeding as a result of his assault, he offered to take her to hospital, but she refused.”

A forensics report said the woman, in her 40s, suffered multiple fractures to her skull.

The nature of the injury was found to be consistent with having her head repeatedly banged against a solid object.

Appearing in court last May, the defendant denied a charge of premeditated murder. He was ordered to be deported after serving his sentence.