Syrians sentenced to life in prison for murder of British woman in Dubai

Two Syrians have been sentenced to life in prison over the robbery and murder of a British mother-of-three who was stabbed to death in her Bur Dubai apartment in 2010.

DUBAI // Two Syrians were yesterday sentenced to life in prison over the robbery and murder of a British mother-of-three who was stabbed to death in her Bur Dubai apartment in 2010.

The Criminal Court ordered MM to be deported after serving his sentence, while MK will serve his sentence in Syria, where he fled following the murder and turned himself in.

Workers at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel where the Scottish woman Maria McClymont, 50, worked as a human resources manager, became suspicious after she failed to turn up for work on May 27 2010 and went to her Golden Sands hotel apartment. They discovered her dead body, dressed only in underwear and lying in a pool of blood.

Three days earlier she had been stabbed to death by MK, with whom she had become involved in a relationship after meeting him at a nightclub. On their first meeting the Syrian told the woman, a divorcee, that he lost his job in August 2009 and had been forced to live with his friend MM since then. He gave her his CV so that she could help him find his job.

On two occasions in the week before the murder the Syrian had tried to drug the woman with sleeping pills so that he could steal from her, but was unsuccessful both times.

Following these attempts his friend MM urged him to kill the woman, but he refused and tried to drug her for a third time. However, the attempt failed once more and he lost his temper and stabbed her several times with a knife from her own kitchen.

He said that the woman then stood up and pulled the knife out of her chest before falling to the ground while uttering words in English which he did not understand.

He fled to Syria the next day after giving the woman's gold and jewellery to his friend MM to sell. On June 1 2010 he surrendered to Syrian authorities. He confessed to the killing and said that MM urged him to do so because she had refused to partner them in an investment in which she was asked to pay Dh40,000.

MK was convicted of murder, MM convicted of inciting murder. Two other men accused of receiving the stolen jewellery - WM, a 30-year-old Syrian, and YH, a 27-year-old Jordanian manager, were acquitted.