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Death penalty for man who killed wife to avoid alimony

The Indian husband's Pakistani accomplice also gets death penalty for strangling the woman to death while she was sleeping.

An unemployed man, who strangled his wife to death because he could not afford to pay her alimony if he divorced her, has been sentenced to death on Wednesday.

The man, a 23-year-old Indian national identified as A.B., fled to India after committing the murder. His accomplice, Pakistani vendor R.S., has also been given the death penalty.

A.B. had problems with his wife and had planned to get rid of her, as per the testimony of R.S.

The two men were convicted by the Court of First Instance on the charge of premeditated murder. They strangled her to death while she was sleeping.

The woman’s body was discovered by a cleaner in a desert area in Al Foqah on Dubai-Al Ain Road on the morning of March 11, last year.

The victim’s father said his daughter complained that A.B. used to drink alcohol and physically assault her. She was upset because her husband reportedly had an affair with a Filipina woman, which was one of the major reasons of their dispute.

A police lieutenant said the police operation room was informed about an Asian woman’s body found on Al Ain-Dubai Road. They identified the victim and tracked her husband down. “We learnt that he fled the country shortly after the murder,” the officer said in the prosecution investigation.

The police tracked A.B.’s accomplice R.S. He confessed that A.B. gave him a gold necklace in exchange for Dh600, with which he purchased a travel ticket. “R.S. confessed that A.B. wanted to divorce the victim but feared the Indian law which would force him to pay her a monthly alimony which he could not afford,” the officer said.

On the day before A.B. left for India, R.S. went to A.B.’s house and helped him kill his wife. “R.S. found A.B. behaving weirdly. He knew that he strangled his wife.”

The officer quoted R.S. as admitting that he checked on the victim and found her still breathing. He then sat on top of her and strangled her to death.

The verdict remains subject to appeal within 15 days.

mary@khaleejtimes.com