Aref Bushqar Al Falasi, a retired brigadier, lawyer and former Dubai prosecutor, has recounted details of one of the emirate’s criminal cases from the 1990s involving the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a nine-year-old girl. The case ultimately led to the main defendant being sentenced to death.

Speaking on the Qaf Noon podcast, Al Falasi said the crime likely occurred in 1996 or 1997 and that the execution he oversaw was, to his knowledge, the first carried out in Dubai. The claim has been reported as his account and has not been independently verified as a historical fact.

The case began after the girl was reported missing. During the search, Dubai Police used tracking dogs that alerted officers to a house, but an initial search found nothing. Several days later, municipal workers discovered the child’s body inside a cardboard box abandoned in a waste container.

Investigators found that the child had been taken to a house, sexually assaulted and then strangled. The main defendant fled the UAE after the crime but was arrested abroad and returned to Dubai to stand trial. He was sentenced to death, while another defendant convicted of concealing the crime received a 15-year prison term.

According to Al Falasi, the execution was carried out by firing squad in Al Ruwayyah. He said the doctor at the scene had mistakenly marked the target point on the condemned man’s body away from the heart, meaning the initial shots were not fatal. The execution was completed about seven minutes later.

After returning to the Public Prosecution, Al Falasi reviewed the child’s forensic report again and found that it indicated around six to seven minutes had elapsed between the assault and the child’s death by strangulation.

The child’s mother was also present in a vehicle near the execution site. Al Falasi said she had been asked whether she would pardon the condemned man, but she refused and left after hearing the first shots.

Al Falasi described the case as one of the experiences that underscored for him the importance of closely examining initial leads and forensic evidence, as well as exercising the utmost care in death penalty cases.