US Marine attempts suicide, Dubai court hears

A US Marine tried to end his life in a Dubai hotel room after his superiors discovered he had an indecent relationship with his daughter, a Dubai court has been told.

DUBAI // An American naval technician who confessed to having an incestuous relationship with his 19-year-old daughter for eight years was charged in a Dubai court yesterday with attempted suicide.

A?A, 40, was found unconscious in a Dubai International Airport Hotel bath by a hotel worker on Christmas Eve.
Investigators found a suicide note detailing the relationship with his daughter, records show.

A?A is an electronics technician in the US navy stationed in Oman, according to prosecutors.

He did not appear before Judge Ibrahim Abu Shamma at the Dubai Misdemeanours Court yesterday, and prosecutors said he was still recovering in Rashid Hospital.

Records show that A?A cut both of his wrists and swallowed 60 heart-medicine tablets purchased from an airport pharmacy.

He also consumed six bottles of alcohol and three cans of energy drink.

The water in the bath was running on his head and his wrists were bleeding, according to court records.

His note says he decided to kill himself after he was ordered back to the US to face allegations of his sexual relationship with the girl, prosecutors say.

In his statement to prosecutors, A?A said that he consumed alcohol, then swallowed the pills before writing the suicide note on his laptop.

“Please send my personal belongings, including this laptop, to my children in America. I love my children and for that I have to end my life,” the note read, according to records.

A?A told prosecutors he asked the Navy to deploy him to the Middle East last year after his daughter wanted to end their sexual relationship. Records show that he arrived in Oman in October, two months before his wife found out about the relationship and reported it to his superiors.

Investigations showed he discovered the reasons behind the call to have him returned to the US after talking to some friends there.

A resident of New York state, he has been married for 20 years and also has a nine-year-old son.

In his confession, he said that on December 23 he was ordered by his commanding officer to return to the US immediately, but was not told why, records show.

He was escorted by a higher-ranking officer identified in records only as C. The man and the officer boarded a Qatar Airlines flight to Dubai, where they were scheduled to catch a Delta Airlines flight to the US.

On December 24 they landed in Dubai and while at the airport, he purchased pre-paid phone cards to talk to his wife, who turned down his calls, records show. He then called his wife’s friends at their  place of work and found out she knew about the illicit relationship.

He testified that he sat in the bath for a while, turned on the water, then broke a glass he found in the room and slit his left and right wrists.

“I think I heard someone yelling before I woke up in the hospital,” he said.

The court will reconvene at the end of this month for A??A to enter his plea.

[e-mail]