Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Nidal Eisa Abdullah was executed on Thursday morning for the kidnap, rape and killing of eight-year-old boy Obaida Sedqi in May 2016 and after the boy’s father refused to pardon him.
In February, Dubai’s Cassation Court rejected the appeal lodged by 48-year-old Jordanian convict, Nidal Eisa Abdullah, and upheld his death sentence given by lower courts.
Following the Ruler’s endorsement, a special firing squad carried out the death sentence against the convict, who was executed in the presence of Dubai’s Attorney-General Essam Eisa Al Humaidan, senior police officers, a mufti and the victim’s father and two uncles in Al Ruwaya area.
Asked about his final wish, the convict, who was on death row, sought pardon and forgiveness from the victim’s father, Ebrahim Sedqi, who rejected the plea.
Thereafter, the convict was executed in the early hours of Thursday.
Gulf News was the first newspaper to publish the news that the execution had been carried out, quoting a chief prosecutor who said: “Today morning, Abdullah was taken from his confinement at Dubai Central Jail, where he had been waiting for the Ruler’s approval, to have the death sentence executed. A special execution team carried out the sentence. Justice has been served and the ruling was carried out.”
The court-appointed lawyer Ali Mosabah Dahi, who defended Abdullah before the Courts of Cassation and Appeal, confirmed to Gulf News that the sentence was carried out.
Abdullah was found guilty of the charges of kidnap, rape and killing of the eight-year-old Jordanian schoolboy on May 20 last year.
The Cassation Court had earlier rejected Abdullah’s final appeal after he asked the highest court to overturn his death sentence and refer it to the Appeals Court for a fresh trial.
In January, the Dubai Appeals Court confirmed the death sentence against Abdullah.
The Court of First Instance had earlier pronounced Abdullah guilty and handed him the capital punishment.
Al Humaidan and his team of prosecutors sought death sentence for Abdullah in the three stages of court — primary, appellate and cassation.
A committee of psychoanalysts had examined the killer’s sanity and their psychiatric evaluation confirmed that the convict suffers from an “antisocial personality disorder with alcohol dependence”.
Court-appointed lawyer Dahi had questioned this medical report in the Cassation Court. “The report was not clear; it was inconclusive. It also lacked details that justify or explain why he suffers that disorder and why is he considered a danger to society.
“The report just said that he is an antisocial person … It also lacked certain psychological and neurological tests, and had those tests been carried out, they would have given a clearer picture of the defendant’s mental state. I am defending the law and not the crime,” argued Abdullah’s lawyer.
He also said that he was complementing the court’s role in ensuring that the law enforcement procedures were carried out properly.
“The appellate court should have approved our demand to have the defendant be re-examined. The defence team had asked the Appeals Court to resend Abdullah for a second psychiatric evaluation to decide whether he suffers from a certain mental illness that makes him temporarily irresponsible for his actions and behaviour — and particularly at the time when he committed the crime,” he contended.
Dahi had asked the Cassation Court’s presiding judge to overturn the appellate court judgement and refer the case to a new panel of appeal judges to look into it again.
However, the Cassation Court’s five-judge bench rejected the lawyer’s request.
The death sentence was approved by 11 judges through its stages — three of the First Instance Court, three of the Appeals Court and five of the Cassation Court.
Abdullah had earlier denied kidnapping and raping the victim but pleaded guilty to murdering the victim.
He was also ordered to pay Dh21,000 in temporary compensation to the boy’s family.
The accused lured the boy to his car by offering to buy him a scooter and then he drove to Al Mamzar area in Dubai.
There, he moved the victim to the back seat and had forced sex with him. He assaulted the boy before he strangled him with a red gotra when the victim tried to resist him.
*Gulf News
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