Woman who killed her spouse would be first in UAE to be executed

April 20, 2010

An Emirati woman, who killed her husband in collusion with her lover seven years back, will be the first woman to be executed in the UAE with the apex court upholding her death sentence.


The woman, her lover, and two friends of the boyfriend -- all convicted for the killing -- are on death row for the murder of the woman's husband, reports said.

The four accused moved the appeals court twice to seek a suspension of the death sentence, a Gulf News report said.

The Abu Dhabi Supreme Court, however, has twice upheld capital punishment for the four.

The accused have all been held at Sharjah Central Jail since 2003 when the victim Fahd, an Emirati policeman in his twenties, was murdered, the report said.

The four accused now await a ruling from the higher authority which will authorize a firing squad to carry out the sentence.

The blood parents of the husband had refused to pardon the accused and sought Qisas (capital punishment) for them.

Under Islamic law a death sentence is suspended if the close relatives of the victim pardon the accused.

The victim had died of multiple stab wounds after the three men and the woman named Khawla stabbed him several times.

The three accused then ran away leaving the victim bleeding for more than an hour.

The woman then contacted police claiming that unidentified robbers had attacked him.

The woman later admitted to the crime, and said she wanted to get rid of her husband so that she would be free to marry her boyfriend. Following her confession, the police arrested the three accomplices.

The victim's mother, who passed away after the murder of her son, had asked her other children while she was on her death bed not to pardon the killers after her death.