Lankan man to face firing squad in Dubai over jealous killing
September 21, 2010 07:17 am
A 23-year-old man who stabbed his lover’s husband to death in a jealous rage is to face a firing squad. Rowan Kumar, from Sri Lanka, was convicted in April by the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In June, the Dubai Court of Appeals accepted the public prosecutors’ case for the death sentence on the ground that the murder was premeditated.
Yesterday, Dubai’s highest court upheld the execution order.
JP, a Sri Lankan businessman and Kumar’s colleague, was stabbed to death in
June 2009. His wife at first told police that an African man had killed her
husband during a mugging, but witnesses revealed that she and Kumar were having
an affair.
The wife then confessed to her involvement with Kumar, and said he had
killed her husband.
Kumar denied murder but admitted that he fought JP in an alley. The Court of
First Instance found him guilty but sentenced him to life in prison because
premeditation could not be established.
At the appeals court, prosecutors proved that Kumar had planned to kill JP, and
had waited for him with a knife in a narrow and poorly lit alley in
Jafiliya. He saw JP walking hand-in-hand with his wife and stabbed him in
the back.
JP then chased Kumar and fought with him, but the killer stabbed him again in the chest and neck before escaping.
He was eventually arrested at his mother’s home in The Springs. Police said she
had bought a plane ticket for her son to flee the country and she was charged
with aiding and abetting the escape of a criminal, but the charges were
dropped.
Kumar will now be placed on death row at the Dubai Central Prison awaiting the
Attorney General’s presentation of the case file to the Ruler’s Office to
confirm an execution date.
The Chief Justice of the Criminal Courts, Judge Ahmed Ibrahim Saif, said
convicts on death row had visitation rights until the day of
execution.
Kumar’s family can visit on the day of execution, but may not attend the
execution itself.
The victim’s family is allowed to do so with permission from the
attorney general’s office.
The last execution in Dubai
was in 2002, of a Yemeni man convicted of kidnapping and murder, according to
public prosecutors, The National reports.
The death penalty in the UAE
Death warrants must be signed by the emirate’s Ruler.
The Ruler or the victim’s family can pardon a killer.
The official method of execution for murder is the firing squad.
The last confirmed execution took place in 2008, in Ras al Khaimah.
A suspect can be sentenced to death for eight crimes: murder, espionage,
terrorism, drug trafficking, rape, converting from Islam, adultery and giving
government secrets to enemy states.
Representatives from the Public Prosecutor’s office must be present and any
last statements are recorded.
Members of the victim’s family may attend the execution only after special
permission from the Attorney General. The defendant’s family cannot be present.