Masseur sentenced to 10 years in jail

An Egyptian masseur is sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of one of his clients.

DUBAI // An Egyptian masseur was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for the murder of one of his clients, a Saudi man. The defendant, MA, 31, claimed the killing was in self-defence as the Saudi man, HM, tried to force himself on him sexually. "The court was not convinced it was self-defence, it was clearly intentional murder," said the Presiding Judge, Fahmi Mounir, after giving the verdict.

Judge Mansour al Awadi, who also heard the case, said: "We saw this was the suitable penalty for the nature of the crime. He could have received life in prison. The appeal court can always overturn our ruling." Prosecutors charged MA with premeditated murder, a crime that would entail either a death sentence or life in prison, but the court only found him guilty of intentional murder. The court also ordered that he be deported after serving his sentence.

The defendant admitted hitting his victim on the back of the head with a metal bar, but told the court he did not intend to kill him. Hamdi al Shiwi, a defence lawyer, told the court two weeks ago: "My client's actions were not intended to kill but only to stop the victim from sodomising him, as HM was intent on doing." Mr al Shiwi said his client was a poor country boy unfamiliar with the ways of the world and thought by working as a masseur he would make good money to send to his family.

MA met his victim a month before the attack, advertising his services as a masseur in a local newspaper. MA said HM came to his apartment twice for a massage. On the day of the murder, April 12 last year, they met at a local market where HM asked MA to come to his apartment in Freej Murar and give him a massage. The defendant agreed and once in the flat HM immediately took off his clothes for the massage. MA said he also partially stripped but kept his underwear on.

During the massage HM asked for sex but MA said he refused and went to dress to leave. The masseur said HM followed him and insisted on having sex. At that point MA took out a metal bar from under the massage bed and hit HM over the head several times. MA said the victim fell to the floor and did not move. MA then wrapped the murder weapon in a small carpet and took the victim's wallet, credit cards and mobile phones and went home to Sharjah. The defendant disposed of the murder weapon and the wallet but used one of the credit cards at an electronics store in Sharjah where he was caught on tape by a security camera. He was later arrested outside a shopping mall in Sharjah.