11.45 AM Tuesday, 19 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 05:07 06:20 12:29 15:54 18:33 19:47
19 March 2024

Obaida resisted murderer: Forensics

The convict NI, 48, who is also Jordanian, admitted to rape and murder of Obaida. (File)

Published
By Eman Al Baik

Hearing in the alleged rape and murder case of 8-year-old Jordanian boy, Obaida Al Aqrabawi, resumed on Monday.

Forensic expert testified at the Court of First Instance when questioned by the public Prosecution.

Forensic doctor, who examined the body of the accused four days after the crime, confirmed that there were scratches and bruise marks on the chest, arm and legs of the accused which coincides with the date of the crime May 20.

In addition to the injuries, the shirt, which the accused wore when committing the crime, was also torn.

"The injuries and torn shirt prove that the victim had resisted his rapist and killer," said the doctor, refusing that the boy submitted to his attacker.

Explaining how Obaida died the doctor said as the victim was strangled to death and finger prints were spotted on his nect. As the victim was, the ligaments and joints were soft, hence there was no fractures in the neck bones.

The doctor testified that the accused was fully conscious and aware when his blood sample was taken. However, the doctor could not tell what his situation was when he committed the crime because he was arrested four days after the crime was committed.

Proceeding interrupted

During the court hearing the proceeding was interrupted by angry family members of the victim.

Towards the end of the hearing, presiding judge Erfan Omar Atiyah asked the accused if he wants anything from the court.

"I want to ask a question that would comfort me and you,” answered the 48-year-old Jordanian.

Accused tried to ask a question to the jury bench but he was told that his defence lawyer should do that.

The judge answered firmly saying, "You cannot ask the jury, tell your lawyer what you want to say and the lawyer will pass that on to the court."

The remorseless attitude of the accused angered Obiada's father who started cursing and abusing the accused. This prompted the judge to ask him to leave the court room.

The next hearing, which will be held on August 1.
 
Case so far

In the previous hearing, the court listened to the testimonies of officers who investigated and arrested the accused following a complaint lodged by the boy’s father about his child went missing. They all noted that the accused was in a normal condition when he confessed to committing this heinous crime.

It was told during the court hearing that the accused had kept the boy’s body in his car’s rear seat when the father and his brother – boy’s uncle – came to the accused’s flat in search of the boy.

As Obaida’s father testified in previous hearing, the accused offered him coffee and his brother while the little boy’s body was hidden in the culprit’s car.

Moreover, Obaida’s father was very suspicious regarding the accused to the extent that he even looked through the tinted glass of his car when he got off the flat, but did not saw the body in the rear seat.

A police officer, who interrogated the accused, testified that the "murderer admitted that after kidnapping the boy from his father’s garage, he raped and killed him in Al Mamzar area before driving back to Sharjah at dawn. He drove to his flat to get money, as he did not have any. He said that the boy’s body was still on the car’s rear seat. He got into his flat and after a couple of minutes, Obaida’s father knocked at the door.”

Obaida’s father, who was accompanied by his brother, searched the flat but did not find the body.

“After getting down the building, I looked through the car’s window glass but did not see the boy’s body. The car’s windows were tinted,” the father said in his testimony.

“The accused, however, told us that the boy’s body was on the car’s rear seat when Obaida’s father and his uncle came and searched his flat. That was his confession… I did not personally look through the car’s glass,” testified First Lieutenant Hamad Saif when asked how the boy’s father and uncle did not see Obaida’s body in the car.

The accused admitted before officers that after sodomising the boy the two got off again to the front seats where the boy started asking him repeatedly about the scooter.

As the boy did not get the scooter, he threatened the accused of telling his father about what happened, the accused had told officers after his arrest.

“The accused said during investigations that he did not answer his question and resumed drinking alcohol. Then he started thinking what he would do with the boy’s threats. He decided to kill him, so he asked the boy to go to the back seat and so he did. He suffocated him with his hands before using a red ‘ghutra’ – head scarf. After killing the boy, he resumed drinking until early hours of the morning and before driving back to his flat in Sharjah to get money,” testified the officer before the court.

Once Obaida’s father had left the accused’s house, the killer drove to his brother’s house in Dubai and on the way he got rid of the body in Al Warqa area.

He also threw away the boy’s belongings in the same area.

Police found the boy's shoes about 800 meter away from the body.