Omani killers of Emirati to be tried again

Oman’s supreme court overturned a life sentence against two Omani convicted of murdering an Emirati young man and decided to refer the case to another court panel, the semi official daily Alittihad said on Wednesday.

The supreme court took that decision after an appeal by the two convicts and the prosecutor, who is demanding tougher punishment for premeditated murder.

The two unnamed defendants were sentenced to life in jail by an Omani court in late December after they were convicted of murdering the 20-year-old Hadi Dhafir Al-Ahbabi in Buraimi near the UAE-Oman border.

The court in Ibri issued its verdict on the two, aged 35 and 58 years, after several hearings following the murder of Ahbabi in August 2009.

The defendants had confessed to killing Ahbabi after he visited them in Buraimi for treatment of unspecified illness.

“They dumped his body in the desert but it was found later…Ahbabi’s relatives then demanded an autopsy on the body before its burial in the UAE.…the autopsy revealed that he was strangled,” the paper said.

It said the two had apparently murdered Ahbabi for theft as they seized his car and sold it after the crime. The paper quoted the father after the verdict in December as saying he would appeal at Omani courts for tougher punishment.