The Court of Cassation on Monday upheld the death penalty given by 2 lower courts to a fisherman found guilty of raping and murdering a 4-year-old boy in the washroom of a Dubai mosque in November last year.
On Monday, a 5-judge bench presided over by judge Mohammed Nabil Riyad upheld the death sentence to Emirati fisherman Rashid Rubaih Al Rashidi, 31, who was earlier convicted by 2 courts in January and April respectively as he was found guilty of raping and killing Pakistani boy, Moussa Moukhtiar, on the 1st day of Eid Al Adha last year.
The Court of First Instance rejected the defendant’s pleas of insanity and clemency. It ruled that no clemency would be given to the accused, who did not have mercy on the little boy.
The accused was also given a 6-month jail sentence for consuming alcohol. The verdict will have now to be ratified by the Ruler of Dubai. The execution will be carried out by a firing squad. No such execution has taken place in Dubai in more than 5 years.
The Emirati had enticed the boy with the promise of an Eid gift to a mosque washroom, where he gagged and raped the child and then killed him by banging his head on the floor.
Earlier, during the proceedings, the head of psychological medicine at Rashid Hospital, Mohammed Hassan, had testified that the defendant was mentally sound.
Defence counsel Abdel Rahman Al Mudarreb had argued that the defendant had a harsh childhood and was deprived of proper education. He pleaded for leniency and urged that the death sentence be reduced to life term.
The convict has had a history of convictions for sodomy, rape and theft.
Dubai’s Attorney General Issam Eissa Al Humaidan said in a statement that the Public Prosecution would announce the timing of execution and other details later.
Source: Khaleej Times, June 8, 2010
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