Man in UAE gets death penalty for killing cousin over Dh400

A farm worker, who killed his cousin because the victim demanded that he pay back the Dh400 he owed, has been sentenced to death.  
The Abu Dhabi Cassation Court upheld the rulings of the lower courts that found the Asian man guilty of premeditated murder. 
Court documents showed that the man had a heated argument with his cousin over a Dh400 debt. The victim, who worked in another farm in the neighbourhood, was asking him to pay the money back. Both men worked as shepherds in a farm in Abu Dhabi. 
Later that evening, the defendant went to the victim's room with an axe and another hard object.
"The man used the tools to hit his cousin on the head and in the neck several times, which caused his death," said prosecutors.
After carrying out the attack, the defendant removed the victim's clothes, tied a rope around his leg, and dragged the body to the side of his boss' farm, where he dug a shallow hole and buried him.
Besides burying his cousin's body in the sand to cover up the murder, he stole the victim's phone and hid it in his room, according to police investigations.
Upon noticing that the victim was missing, his boss asked the other workers to look for him. One of them smelled a stench and discovered the body that was buried in the nearby farm.
The man admitted to both the police and the prosecutors that he did carry out the murder. Both the Criminal Court of First Instance and the Appeal Court sentenced him to death, after the victim's family refused to pardon him in exchange for blood money.  
The man challenged the sentence in Abu Dhabi's top court, but the earlier rulings have been maintained.
A death sentence is executed only after the approval of the UAE President.
- ismail@khaleejtimes.com