A 26-year-old Asian man was sentenced to life in prison for strangling his girlfriend, hiding her body under his bed, and later stashing it in a suitcase, a Dubai court ruled.

The judgment was upheld by the Dubai Court of Appeal on April 29, after being issued by a lower court in September last year. The convict shall be deported after completing his prison term, the ruling added.

The woman was in the man's residence in International City on January 26, 2022, when they got into a heated argument, court records show.

As the fight escalated, the man strangled his girlfriend and hid her body under his bed. He also disposed of her belongings — including her mobile phone — in a sewage pipe, the records added.

The man's flatmates returned home and went out shopping without noticing the dead woman's body.

The next morning, the man left for Jebel Ali and booked a hotel room, and then texted his two flatmates to inform them of the murder. Both men insisted that he take the body out of the apartment.

He purchased a large suitcase, packed the body inside, and abandoned it near the garbage bin, where it was discovered by a security guard on January 29, 2022, court records show.

“The police’s operations room received a call from the building’s guard who said a human leg stuck out from the suitcase when he tried to open it to check it,” a police officer told the court.

Police investigation quickly led to identifying the victim and connecting the defendant to the crime. He was arrested on the same day and during police questioning, he said he met the woman at a dance club.

“We became a couple and she often visited me at my apartment,” the defendant said in records.

Despite initially confessing to the crime during police interrogation, the man later denied the charges in court. However, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

His flatmates were also charged but denied failing to report a crime. They were sentenced to three months in jail each, and have been deported after completing their prison terms.

Culled from Khaleej Times