(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Â The Court of Appeal on Sunday commuted the death sentence given to a man, accused of torturing his daughter to death, to life in prison.
The three-judge bench could not reach an unanimous decision on upholding the death verdict of Emirati defendant H.S., 29, and thus reduced it to life imprisonment. It upheld the life term given to his compatriot girlfriend A.A.A., 27.
The Public Prosecution is set to appeal the verdict in the Cassation Court.
In a previous hearing, H.S. claimed his ex-wife had cast a spell on him that instead affected his eight-year-old daughter Wadeema.
An ex-security supervisor, H.S. was given the capital punishment in February by the Court of First Instance, for torturing his daughter Wadeema to death and inflicting permanent injuries on his other daughter, Mira, 7. He earlier told the court that 'his conviction lacked concrete evidence'.
H.S. had earlier admitted in court that he inflicted some of the burns on Mira's body, claiming he only meant to discipline her. But he alleged his ex-wife was to blame for Mira's other injuries in what he claimed to be a vindictive act against him. "The medical report said that Mira's burns were old except for three. The old burns were inflicted by my ex-wife."
"She used to tell my daughters that I don't love them. This was shown in the report by the psychiatrist on Mira's condition which said she felt unloved".
He denied all along the charges of torturing and illegally confining and depriving his two daughters of their freedom by use of force. H.S. admitted, however, that he hid Wadeema's body by burying it in a remote desert location in Al Badayer in Sharjah without the proper official authorisation.
The two accused were found guilty of torturing, mentally and physically, Wadeema and Mira for about six months by depriving them of food and clothes and imprisoning them in H.S.'s rented flat in International City.
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