Lawyers for accused Dubai child murderer quit in disgust

Dec 24, 2009, 10:07 GMT

  Dubai - Lawyers of a man accused of raping and murdering a four-year-old boy in a Dubai mosque have quit their jobs in disgust, saying he was 'an embarrassment to humanity,' a local newspaper reported Thursday.

  'After reviewing the case files and inspecting his detailed confession ... we have reached the decision to bow out as a final matter from defending (the accused), and we view that this defendant is an embarrassment to humanity,' the lawyers wrote to the judge in the case, in a letter published by Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper.

  The court-appointed lawyers noted the 'gruesome nature of the crime.'

  The judge then asked for a volunteer to represent the defendant, with advocates only agreeing to take on the case if the man pleaded guilty to all charges, which he subsequently did.

  The man, aged 30 and a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, said he murdered the boy unintentionally.

  The prosecution said they would seek the death penalty and a speedy trial in the case, which has shocked the emirate.

In court, prosecutors presented a confession from the accused in which he said he had been drinking heavily he lured the Pakistani child to the bathroom of a mosque with promises of gifts.

According to his confession, he then sexually assaulted the boy, and accidentally smothered him to death when the child cried.

  The boy's father called the accused a 'monster' and demanded the death penalty.