Muscat: DNA samples will be taken from the family of two Emirati brothers who drowned last July off Mirbat in Dhofar governorate.
An official at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) told Gulf News that the samples were taken last October from the family to match the DNA of at least one severely decomposed body.
“Some samples will be taken for the second time soon from the relatives to make sure that the dead body DNA prints match them,” said the official.
The official added that it is very difficult to say for now whether the dead body is that of one of the Emirati brothers, stressing that Omani authorities are doing their best to solve the case very soon.
The samples were taken after a dead body washed ashore in Mirbat last October.
Residents alerted authorities who recovered the body and sent it to Salalah and then to Muscat for forensic testing.
The missing brothers were identified as 21-year-old Abdullah Al Dahri and 19-year-old Mansour Al Dahri.
Gulf News reported earlier that Abdullah refused to let go of his little brother, who was not a good swimmer, after he was struggling to keep his head above the water.
According to Mohammad Al Daheri, a cousin of the brothers who was with them, Abdullah died heroically trying to rescue his brother.
Search and rescue operations scoured the area using boats, divers and helicopters but no bodies were found until this October.
An official from Oman’s Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) told Gulf News the two were feared dead after they were swept out to sea by the extremely strong currents in the area.
At the time, Mohammad sobbed as he told Gulf News how he saw one of his cousins “drown in front of my eyes”, adding that he narrowly escaped that fate himself.
“I tried to stop Abdullah and Mansour but they didn’t listen to me,” he said.
He then saw the waves sweep his cousins further out to sea.
