DUBAI // Two men who killed a man by slitting his throat in an airport car park were sentenced to death yesterday. The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced SD, a 31-year-old driver, and TNA, a 23-year-old worker, to death for intentionally murdering Younis Akbar, a sales executive who they claimed was blackmailing one of them.
Mr Akbar was found dead in his car outside Terminal 2 of Dubai International Airport, where he worked, on November 13, 2008. The court heard that SD murdered him by slitting his throat with a butcher's knife while TNA held his hands to prevent him from escaping. The men, both Indian, also stole the victim's wallet and mobile phone. The panel of judges, headed by the presiding judge, Hamad al Jawad, found that SD had intentionally murdered the victim to avoid having to pay back money he owed him.
Under UAE law, cases involving the death penalty are automatically referred to an appeals court. Prosecutors said Mr Akbar had been blackmailing SD because he knew he had swindled money from the company he worked for. SD told prosecutors he had killed Mr Akbar because he had repeatedly demanded money from him and also wanted to have sexual relations with his wife. "He asked me to bring the money or bring my wife so he can have a sexual relationship with her," prosecution records quote SD as saying.
SD claimed he had not planned to kill the victim, but when Mr Akbar threatened him and insisted on a meeting he took a knife along with him. "He threatened to hurt me badly so I decided to take a knife with me," SD told prosecutors. SD "told me that he wanted me to help to kill Akbar because he was blackmailing him," TNA told prosecutors. "I tried to refuse but I gave in to [SD's] request as he is the one who brought me to the country."
TNA said they had planned the crime for more than six weeks and that on an earlier occasion he had set out to kill Mr Akbar but had changed his mind because the parking area was too crowded, according to court documents. After announcing the guilty verdict, the panel of three judges said they had no option but to issue the death penalty as the suspects had "betrayed" the victim and were "stripped of any human feelings" when they committed the crime.
Tomorrow, the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance is scheduled to issue a verdict in the trial of a fishing boat captain accused of sexually assaulting and killing Moosa Mukhtiar Ahmed, a four-year-old Pakistani boy. The public prosecution and Moosa's distraught family have repeatedly called for the death penalty for RR, who allegedly killed the child at a mosque on November 27, the first day of Eid.
In January last year the death sentence was handed to a man convicted of killing a night-watchman during a bungled attempt to steal money from a car showroom. According to prosecutors, it was the first death sentence handed down in Dubai in three years. wissa@thenational.ae