ABU DHABI // A British mother nearly became the victim of the Reem Island killer – but was spared because she was pushing her baby in a pram, the Federal Supreme Court heard on Tuesday.
In a dramatic prosecution video, the accused, Alaa Al Hashemi, 30, re-enacted the murder of Ibolya Ryan in Boutik Mall on December 1 last year, reported a local daily.
The video showed how she had walked into the mall, asked the security guard where the toilet was and took a magazine while on her way there. In the film, she says she waited with a knife hidden in her right sock, until the bathroom was quiet.
She considered attacking the British woman but changed her mind because the woman was pushing a baby in a pram. The victim then walked in and the accused asked her for help to get into a disabled toilet.
Al Hashemi says in the video: “When the victim turned, I locked the door and asked her to sit down on the side of the toilet.
“When she refused I took out the knife. She had kept her bag in front of her and I asked her to give it to me. When she did she tried to attack me so we fought in this corner.
“She started screaming for help and I pushed her to the wall where I stabbed her – I don’t know how many times, but mostly in her chest area.”
The door was pushed open by a security guard and Al Hashemi ran to the lifts, leaving the murder weapon behind.
In the film Al Hashemi confesses to the murder and says she wanted to kill an expatriate to disturb peace in the UAE.
But after the film was shown in court she said: “That is me, but it is like I am dreaming.”
“I don’t remember doing any of this or saying it,” Al Hashemi told the court.
The public prosecution presented the court with a USB drive and eight CDs that included images, videos and a recorded phone call from the day of the incident.
The drive also contained CCTV footage of Al Hashemi entering the mall at 1.12pm on December 1 and leaving at 2.45pm.
