Death sentence for man who killed wife and unborn child

The Court of Cassation overturned a previous verdict which sentenced the man to 10 years in prison.

ABU DHABI // A man found guilty of killing his wife and her unborn child has been sentenced to death and ordered to pay his wife’s inheritors Dh10,000 in blood money.

The Court of Cassation overturned the Court of Appeal’s 10-year jail sentence for the two crimes.

The court said that the killer’s confession of murder before the inheritance judge – who is part of the judiciary – and before the prosecution was a judicial confession that should result in retribution.

A prison sentence was not valid when blood relatives insist on retribution.

A dispute broke out between the man and his wife after he doubted the unborn child was his own and his wife refused to abort it.

The wife’s brother was called from outside the UAE to resolve the dispute, but the woman insisted on keeping the child and asked for a divorce.

On the day of the crime, the man stabbed his wife to death in the chest, neck and abdomen, killing the unborn baby.

He then stole his brother-in-law’s phone, got into his wife’s car and drove to the airport.

He left the car in Bani Yas and took a taxi to the airport to leave the country.

When his brother-in-law found his sister had been murdered, he notified the police and the husband was arrested at Bahrain airport.

He confessed to the crime during investigations in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, and showed police where he had left the car.