(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) A 35-year-old Indian driver was sentenced to death on Wednesday after he was convicted of stabbing his former boss 30 times and battering him to death with a hammer at his flat in Karama following a dispute over salary arrears.
The Court of First Instance, presided over by Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi along with two member judges, was unanimous on the death penalty to the driver, who faced a premeditated murder charge. The verdict remains subject to appeal within 15 days at the Court of Appeal.
According to prosecution records, a dispute over money was the cause of the crime and the victim allegedly owed the accused Dh45,000 in salary.
The driver went to his boss's house on the night on July 9 last year after he had called him to make sure he was alone at home. He carried with him a knife and a hammer in a bag.
A forensic doctor told the prosecutor that the severe injuries inflicted on the victim's head could be sufficient to cause the death.
He said that the victim was battered eight times with the hammer and stabbed 30 times with the knife. One stab cut through the heart.
A woman administration manager at the firm, where the defendant had worked as a driver for four years, said that he filed his resignation in May, 2010.
He was upset with the victim who "did not keep up to his promise of improving his work conditions".
She said the defendant threatened not to leave the victim alone and would keep tracking him even if he went to India.
The manager informed the victim about those threats but he did not take them seriously.
The defendant was arrested in Sharjah the day after the murder. He admitted to the police that he killed his ex-boss over the money dispute and said the man "deserved to die because he was unfair to him".
He told how he went to the victim's apartment in Karama and got mad when his former boss did not want to listen to his claims of salary dues.
He stabbed the victim in his neck and head and battered him many times on his head with a hammer.
He changed his blood-stained shirt with one he took from the closet, covered his injured hand with a piece of cloth and went back to his place in Sharjah.
The body was discovered by one of the victim's friends the following morning after he was contacted by his worried wife in India.
