DUBAI // A Russian man challenging a 15-year prison sentence for murder told Dubai Appeal Court yesterday that his alleged victim had already died from a drug overdose when he found him in his apartment.
SA, 25, was initially acquitted of the murder of AA by Dubai Court of First Instance, but the appeal court overturned the decision on Dec 21, sentencing him to 15 years. SA filed a fresh appeal earlier this year.
The public prosecutor accused him of taking drugs with AA, beating him unconscious and putting him - still alive - into a large travel bag which he then placed in the boot of the victim's own car.
Police found the body in the vehicle at a public car park in Satwa in October 2007.
Last September, Judge Fahmi Mounir handed down a not-guilty verdict, saying that doubt surrounded the exact cause of death.
SA's co-defendant, NJ, an Uzbek national, was also cleared of murder. They were both found guilty on a related drug abuse charge and received four-year jail sentences.
The initial medical examiner's report said: "The most likely cause of death is suffocation due to being placed in a tight space with limited air to breathe and little room to move inside a sack which was securely fastened."
hbathish@thenational.ae
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Company name: Farmin
Date started: March 2019
Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: AgriTech
Initial investment: None to date
Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs