Corpun file 21057 at www.corpun.com

Gulf News, Dubai, 28 February 2000

Four-year jail for man who battered his wife to death

By Tahseen Shaghouri

Fujairah -- A man has been sentenced to four years imprisonment and 70 lashes for battering his wife to death with a rock while under the influence of alcohol.

The murder took place in Fujairah in November 1998. Judges of the Fujairah Sharia Criminal Court recently sentenced Zaka Dibas Kolo Kassi, a 41-year-old Cypriot, who worked as an engineer at one of the rockcrushers near Al Dhaid.

He has been in jail ever since his arrest and has already served 15 months. He has another two years and nine months to go after which he will be deported.

Police stumbled upon the murder during a patrol. They saw blood stains leading off the highway between Fujairah and Al Dhaid. The trail led them to Kassi, who admitted killing his wife, but claimed that the murder was not pre-meditated and happened during an emotional outburst when he was drunk.

Kassi said he and his spouse were having trouble ever since they were married 17 years ago. The shock of discovering that she had been unfaithful to him was too much to bear.

Kassi claimed that she had wrangled more than Dh 175,000 out of him and was planning to leave him for her lover and even said she would take the children.

The grisly incident happened one night, while they were driving towards Masafi and started quarrelling.

Kassi admitted that he had been drinking. At one point his wife asked him to stop the car because she wanted to relieve herself.

Kassi said she continued to abuse him and his family, at which point he battered her head with a rock. He said he dumped her body in a valley near the Friday Market.