ABU DHABI // A man who decapitated his girlfriend's ex-boss should be executed, the highest court in the UAE ruled today.
The boyfriend strangled and stabbed the boss with a kitchen knife before chopping his head off with a meat cleaver in a vicious attack prompted by complaints by his girlfriend, a maid, that she was being sexually harassed.
Prosecutors said the maid had quit due to the harassment, but later agreed to meet her ex-boss at his home after being told the rest of his family was out of the country.
She called her boyfriend and asked him to accompany her. When they arrived the maid left the door open so her boyfriend could sneak in after her. He hid in the kitchen while she met her ex-boss in the bedroom.
The boyfriend armed himself with a knife and then went to the bedroom, where he found the ex-boss embracing the maid. He then strangled and stabbed the man a number of times. However, this did not kill the boss, so the boyfriend returned to the kitchen where he picked up a larger knife and a meat cleaver. He returned and stabbed the boss again before hacking off his head with the cleaver.
He then fled but was caught by police as he tried to board a plane home at Dubai International Airport.
He was put on trial at Sharjah's Criminal Court, which heard that his fingerprints and DNA were found on the murder weapons and the dead man's body. The court also heard from the building's watchman who said he saw the man and his girlfriend leave the house on the day of the murder.
The court sentenced him to death. This verdict was upheld yesterday by the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi in the last step of the judicial process.
The ruling will now be sent to the Ruler for final approval.
hdajani@thenational.ae
