Police say the brutal murder happened after the middle-aged Emiratis and their 21-year-old friend went on a trip to Oman to go drinking at a nightclub in November 2012.
After leaving the club in Al Buraimi, just across the border from Al Ain, at about 2.30am, the men drove to a remote valley in Oman, where the Emirati victim, Nasser Ali Nasser, from Rashidiya, in Dubai, was asked to strip naked, head investigator into the case Major Adel Mohammed told the court on Tuesday.
Cousins MA and AA, from Dubai, and YB, from Ajman, who are all on trial for murder, are then said to have ordered NA to have sex with them. When he did not respond, they touched him inappropriately and forced him to have oral sex.
Major Mohammed then said that, once back in the car, MA sat with the victim in the back seat and asked AA, who was in the passenger seat, to help him strangle the 21-year-old.
AA was hesitant but then MA started yelling that the victim was related to a man who caused the death of their other cousin, according to the defendants’ statements to police.
While YB was driving, the cousins then pulled the seatbelt from both ends around NA’s neck until he died.
On arrival in another valley, the cousins wrapped their victim’s body in the fabric covering the car seats and then doused him in petrol and set him alight before dumping him.
The alarm was raised when the victim’s father reported his son missing at Al Rashidiya police station. He was last seen at his home on October 27.
“We started to investigate and discovered that the last time he was seen he was with the three defendants,” said Major Mohammed.
When police suspicion grew that a crime had taken place, the trio were arrested.
After three rounds of questioning, the defendants
At first, the defendants told police that they had been at the nightclub but that NA had somehow suffocated himself, with no involvement from themselves.
They said they did not know what to do with him, so they dumped the body.
However, when questioned for a third time, they broke and told the whole story in detail. Despite the confessions, they all denied the charges against them.
YB, the oldest defendant, said he did not participate in the killing as he was driving the car but he helped the cousins dump the body and get rid of the victim’s possessions.
Dubai Police officer Khalfan Al Kaabi also testified that he examined the car used in the crime and found a small piece of the fabric inside it that was wrapped around the victim’s body.
MA’s lawyer asked Major Mohammed if there were any signs of resistance in the car, however, the judge contested that his client had already stated to police that he was surprised by the victim’s lack of resistance.
YB’s lawyer asked the major if, in his opinion, it was possible for his client to have prevented the crime. Major Mohammed said he could not know the answer to that question.
Officer Al Kaabi told the court that it was difficult to find the victim’s body at first, despite YB giving them directions. He said they went to the site many times but could not find the body until Oman Police interfered.
Before the hearing started, a fist fight broke out between the two cousins, MA and AA. A police officer had to escort AA outside for a cigarette while MA was given a coffee until they both calmed down.
The victim’s relatives and lawyer requested the trio get a death sentence.
The case was adjourned for the third police witness, who is on service overseas, to attend. A hearing date has yet to be set.
