A man accused of strangling a woman then robbing her told Dubai Criminal Court she was his girlfriend and he loved her very much.
Records show that the 31-year-old Lebanese accused met his Vietnamese woman in August last year at a nightclub.
“We spent a lot of time together and had sex with her consent, then I took her to the Maldives with me, and few weeks later she had to go to her home country and while there she asked me for money and I wired her Dh55,100,” the man said.
He said that upon her return to Dubai from Vietnam she began accusing him of posting pictures of her on Facebook and asked him for more money.
“We spoke about it and the problem was solved after which she asked me for Dh50,000 to open her own business, she said she wanted to open a beauty salon, so I gave her the money because I loved her,” he told prosecutors.
The man said that in February this year she asked for a further Dh13,000. “She said she needed the money for the salon business and she told me I will be partner so I gave her the money, only to find out later that I wasn’t partner on paper,” he said.
He told prosecutors she then began ignoring his calls and messages, “she was a completely different woman than the one I fell in love with.”
Prosecutors said the man asked the woman for his money while visiting her at her apartment in Bur Dubai and when she ignored him, he strangled her and broke her neck.
The accused then allegedly placed her body in a large bag and stole her cash and jewellery before returning to his flat.
The defendant was arrested a week later after the woman’s friends reported her missing and police found her body in the bag on the bathroom floor.
“We checked CCTV footage and saw him entering the building then exiting five hours later from the back entrance carrying some bags, we suspected in him and investigated his identity and found out he had been in a relation with the deceased,” said an Emirati policeman, 29.
“He admitted when we questioned him and said he lost his temper and was provoked by the woman’s attitude,” said the officer.
The man denied charges of premeditated murder and theft in court.
The next hearing will be held on September 28.