Hearing in Obaida murder case on Feb. 13

The Court of Cassation will take up an appeal plea entered by the murderer of 8-year-old Obaida on February 13.
The death sentence of the convict, 48-year-old Jordanian Nidal Eissa Abdullah, was recently upheld by the Court of Appeals.
The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced Abdullah to death in August last year after convicting him of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing the Jordanian boy in an inebriated state.
Earlier, the attorney general has said that he would not rest until the convict is executed. "The child Obaida's blood is our responsibility. The public prosecution will not accept less than the death penalty," the Attorney General, Eissam Issa Al Humaidan, said.
The appellate court had already listened to the closing arguments of the defence lawyer Ali Musabeh. He pleaded before the court to exert leniency towards his client on the grounds he was showing regret over his crime.
In his arguments, the lawyer told the court that Abdullah had told him that he was mistreated by his father and step-mother; such problems, which as the defendant claimed, somehow contributed to his alcohol abuse.
Musabeh also argued that the committee of psychiatrists who evaluated his client showed in their report that he was anti-social. But the report failed to show whether his condition was treatable or not.
The medical report, which was earlier presented to the court, revealed Abdullah was sane, mentally stable and so responsible for his actions.
The case dates back to May 20 when the child was reported missing from outside his parents' house in Sharjah and his body was found two days later on the side of a road in Al Warqa.
A convict on death row in Dubai is executed by a firing squad.
mary@khaleejtimes.com