Lawyer renews request for closed hearing in Obaida case

Plea claims accused is being influenced by the presence of policemen and other detainees

Alawyer, who is defending a man charged with raping and killing an eightyear-old boy, yesterday renewed his request for a closed hearing to ensure his client a fair and just trial.

The 49-year-old Jordanian suspect, Nidal Eisa Abdullah, had pleaded guilty in an earlier hearing before the Dubai Court of First Instance, admitting that he raped and murdered the Jordanian boy, Obaida Sedqi, but denied kidnapping the boy, who willingly sat with him in the car “like he usually did” in May.

Yesterday, the court-appointed lawyer, Omran Darwish, provided presiding judge Urfan Omar a written plea requesting the trial be held behind closed doors to ensure that his client undergoes an impartial trial.

The lawyer told the court that his client is being influenced by the presence of policemen and other detainees.

Darwish also sought the court’s permission to communicate with Dubai Police’s General Department of Punitive and Correctional Establishments and the Human Rights Section concerning the treatment of Abdullah in detention and during the trials.

Presiding judge Omar then ordered the court’s secretary, Essam Ali Mohammad, to record Darwish’s plea in the minutes of the hearing in compliance with the Criminal Procedures Law of the UAE.

He then accepted the lawyer’s written request [for a closed hearing] and clubbed it in the case file.

Statements heard

During an hour-long hearing yesterday, the three-judge bench heard the statements of a police lieutenant and Dubai Police’s forensic examiner who examined Obaida’s body.

The lieutenant testified in court how he accompanied the defendant to Dubai Academic City Road and examined the location where the boy’s body was found on May 22.

“I was stationed near the suspect’s house waiting for him to arrive so we could apprehend him. My superior informed me over the phone that he had been arrested at 4pm. I headed to the police headquarters and, during questioning, the suspect admitted that he had taken the boy from his father’s garage … he claimed that he drove to Al Mamzar where he raped him in his car’s back seat. Then when the boy said he would tell his father what had happened, according to the suspect’s confession, he decided to kill him. He claimed that he strangled him first with his hands … but when he noticed that the boy was still breathing, he wrapped a gotra around his neck and strangled him. At the time when the father and the uncle were searching the suspect’s flat, according to the latter’s statement, Obaida’s body was still in the car,” the lieutenant told the court.

Meanwhile, presiding judge Omar and advocate Darwish cross-examined the forensic examiner in the crowded courtroom.

“When I first examined the body, it had bruises and injuries around the neck and the arms. A certain part of the boy’s cheekbone had started to decompose .... Strangulation was the main cause of death … the clinical and physical examination confirmed that he had been raped. Certain bodily injuries and bruises that he had indicates that he had tried to defend himself,” the examiner testified.

The court reconvenes on August 1 to hear the last prosecution witness.