The Dubai Court of Appeals has increased the sentence of killer of the South African executive Kerry Winter from 15 years to life.
Eissa al Sharif, the chief justice of the appeals court, issued the verdict this morning.
MA, who is British, was convicted by the Criminal Court of First Instance on June 7 and sentenced to 15 years. The court held that he stalked Winter and bludgeoned her to death with a baseball bat, before dumping her body at sea.
In closing arguments late in November, MA told the chief justice that he did not kill Winter and that his family and he had suffered considerably during the investigation and trial.
"CID officers told me that they knew I killed her and said that I will pay for that even before they started their investigation in the case," MA told the court last month.
"The media also played a large part by misrepresenting me and character assassinations.
"If I killed Kerry, why would I return to Dubai and arrange for my son to fly in that same weekend from the US?"
The defence said at the time that MA faced threats and brutality from the police and the prosecution’s case was tainted with improper procedures.
He was arrested while flying back to Dubai five days after Winter went missing and was charged with premeditated murder.
amustafa@thenational.ae
