Pinay testifies in UAE murder trial
A Filipina was among six witnesses who testified in the murder case against an Emirati woman accused of fatally stabbing an American kindergarten teacher in a mall in the United Arab Emirates last December.
The witnesses who testified Monday before the Federal Supreme Court also included an Egyptian-American doctor whose house was allegedly the target of a homemade bomb, Gulf News reported Tuesday.
Emirati woman Ala’a Al Hashemi had been charged with stabbing Ibolya Ryan, a kindergarten teacher and mother of three, in the women’s bathroom of Reem Island Boutik Mall.
Al Hashemi was also the suspect in the planting of a homemade bomb outside the home of an Egyptian-American family in Khalidiya.
Presiding judge Falah Al Hajeri postponed the session until May 18 to hear a medical team’s report on the defendant’s mental condition.
The medical team had decided not to admit the accused to a hospital but to periodically check on her while she is in prison.
Mall killing
A Filipina and a Ukranian woman said they were in the women’s bathroom when the murder occurred. They said they heard screaming inside the special needs stall.
The two added they saw under the gap of the door the edge of an abaya and the hand of a "white woman" trying to push away a big knife.
Also, they said they witnessed a woman wearing an abaya, shayla (headscarf) and a niqab leaving the bathroom stall shouting "this crazy woman" and heading towards the exit.
One of the witnesses then called the security guards, but they refused to enter the women’s bathroom and waited for a female security team member.
Homemade bomb
Dr. Mohammad Hassan Hassan, 56, and his son Esmail, 14, told the court the doctor’s wife discovered an odd-looking object at the entrance of their Khalidiya apartment.
At the time, the doctor's wife asked her son to go to the mosque to perform the sunset prayer.
The doctor's wife called her husband who was at work in Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), then called police.
The witness also said his wife sent a picture of the explosive to him before he got home. He said authorities told him that it was a primitive bomb planted in front of his home.
He added police told him that there were no personal factors or motivation behind placing the bomb.
According to the doctor, a woman wearing a niqab (face covering) visited his house two weeks before the incident.
She asked his wife about a European woman living in the same building, prompting the doctor’s wife to call security.
Arrest
An officer in charge of arresting the accused in her Shakbout City home displayed the items the suspect wore during her crime.
Meanwhile, the witnesses were exempt from paying the Dh1,000 fine that the judge had asked them to pay for not attending the previous court session. — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News
The witnesses who testified Monday before the Federal Supreme Court also included an Egyptian-American doctor whose house was allegedly the target of a homemade bomb, Gulf News reported Tuesday.
Emirati woman Ala’a Al Hashemi had been charged with stabbing Ibolya Ryan, a kindergarten teacher and mother of three, in the women’s bathroom of Reem Island Boutik Mall.
Al Hashemi was also the suspect in the planting of a homemade bomb outside the home of an Egyptian-American family in Khalidiya.
Presiding judge Falah Al Hajeri postponed the session until May 18 to hear a medical team’s report on the defendant’s mental condition.
The medical team had decided not to admit the accused to a hospital but to periodically check on her while she is in prison.
Mall killing
A Filipina and a Ukranian woman said they were in the women’s bathroom when the murder occurred. They said they heard screaming inside the special needs stall.
The two added they saw under the gap of the door the edge of an abaya and the hand of a "white woman" trying to push away a big knife.
Also, they said they witnessed a woman wearing an abaya, shayla (headscarf) and a niqab leaving the bathroom stall shouting "this crazy woman" and heading towards the exit.
One of the witnesses then called the security guards, but they refused to enter the women’s bathroom and waited for a female security team member.
Homemade bomb
Dr. Mohammad Hassan Hassan, 56, and his son Esmail, 14, told the court the doctor’s wife discovered an odd-looking object at the entrance of their Khalidiya apartment.
At the time, the doctor's wife asked her son to go to the mosque to perform the sunset prayer.
The doctor's wife called her husband who was at work in Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), then called police.
The witness also said his wife sent a picture of the explosive to him before he got home. He said authorities told him that it was a primitive bomb planted in front of his home.
He added police told him that there were no personal factors or motivation behind placing the bomb.
According to the doctor, a woman wearing a niqab (face covering) visited his house two weeks before the incident.
She asked his wife about a European woman living in the same building, prompting the doctor’s wife to call security.
Arrest
An officer in charge of arresting the accused in her Shakbout City home displayed the items the suspect wore during her crime.
Meanwhile, the witnesses were exempt from paying the Dh1,000 fine that the judge had asked them to pay for not attending the previous court session. — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News
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