UAE- Man, friend get life term for murdering girlfriend 

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) A Syrian man has been sentenced in absentia to life in prison on Wednesday by the Court of First Instance for the premeditated murder of his British girlfriend in her apartment in Rafaa.

Another Syrian, 26-year-old jobless, was also given life term for instigating the murder and criminal complicity. He has been referred to the Court of Misdemeanours for over-staying in the country with an expired visa.

Both defendants were ordered to be deported after completing their sentences.

The murder was linked with the robbery of the victim's jewellery.

A third Syrian who is a 30-year-old salesman, and a Jordanian office manager, 27, was cleared of the charge of possession of stolen jewellery. The verdict remains subject to appeal within 15 days at the Court of Appeal.

According to prosecution records, the runaway Syrian planned the murder in advance before he went to the victim's apartment in May, 2010.

He was arrested by the Syrian authorities shortly after he fled there. He admitted to the killing expressing regret and claiming it was out of anger.

The runaway convict wanted to rob his girlfriend's jewellery and valuables so he tried to put a sedative in her coffee but it did not work. So he took a knife from her kitchen and fatally stabbed her in her chest. He then stole her jewellery and went to his friend's apartment, the jobless on trial, at International City.

An Emirati police lieutenant said in the investigation that they were informed about a body found in a hotel apartment in Rafaa at about 10am on May 27, 2010. It had been there for four days.

The jobless convict told the police that his friend, the main accused, knew the victim for three months and that he was going out with her. She was trying to help him find a job at her workplace.

They had planned to con the victim out of Dh40,000 trying to fool her into a car purchase deal in vain. On the day of the murder, his friend came and picked up his clothes and stuff and went back to Syria.

He handed the jobless man the gold jewellery he had stolen from the victim. He told him to sell it and send the money to Syria. But the latter sold it for Dh7,100 and kept the money for himself.

He managed to sell it through the other defendants whom he knew and worked for a jewellery shop. He did not have to produce any ID card or purchase receipt.

A security guard in the building where the victim lived told the prosecutor that her workmates worried when she skipped work for three days. He went with them to check on her and found her body.

The forensic physician said that the victim received a deep stab wound in her chest to the heart's side causing ruptures in her lungs and arteries and severe and fatal internal bleeding.