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Dubai: Domestic help jailed for life after strangling elderly man

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Dubai - The victim was found dead next to the fridge in their two-bedroom apartment.

Published: Wed 8 Sep 2021, 3:19 AM

A domestic worker in Dubai has been sentenced to life in prison for killing an elderly Emirati man who was left in his care.

The 30-year-old Pakistani defendant was found to have strangled the man using the victim’s ezar (a long waist-wrapper worn under traditional Emirati garments for men).

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The incident happened on June 15 last year, when the man’s wife went shopping and left her diabetic husband with the defendant.

Two hours later, the defendant called her and said her husband lost consciousness. She rushed back home and saw the worker as she was entering the villa.

“He told me my husband was unconscious, not dead,” the Iranian woman, 42, told the court.

She found her husband on the ground next to the fridge in their two-bedroom apartment attached to a villa in Hor Al Anz area.

“I thought he had fallen because it happened before,” she said.

The woman called an ambulance, thinking her husband was still alive, then called her two stepsons.

The man’s sons arrived and one of them rushed to hug and kiss their father.

“When my brother was hugging him, I noticed a piece of cloth and the ezar around my father’s neck,” said the 22-year-old son.

“I asked the worker about what happened but he (the defendant) just laughed,” said the son.

Nearly a month before the incident, the Emirati man had told his son that the worker was abusive and would often push or choke him, according to the investigation.

“But we didn’t think it was true.”

Officers looked for the defendant but he was nowhere to be found. He was arrested the following day in the same area.

Investigations found that he had worked as a gardener for a private company in Dubai but absconded around seven months earlier.

“During questioning, he claimed he had been repeatedly abused by the victim,” a policeman said.

On the day of the murder, he said he was assaulted by the senior citizen who allegedly tried to strangle him with his own ezar because he took too long to prepare him tea and shisha.

“He claimed he acted in self-defence and snatched the ezar from the victim’s hand then used another piece of cloth tossed aside to strangle his victim,” said the officer.

In August last year, the defendant denied a premeditated murder charge in court.

This Tuesday, he was sentenced to life in prison to be followed by deportation.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com



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