Dubai: Dubai Police have appointed a police officer to provide legal and social help to the family of eight-year-old Jordanian boy Obaida Ebrahim Sedqi Al Aqrabawi who was strangled by a 48-year-old man after the boy resisted an attempt to rape him.
The assigned officer will help the family with any procedures, provide whatever kind of legal, psychological and social support they need during the upcoming period and through all stages of the case, which has become an issue of public debate.
Dubai Police found Obaida’s body in Al Warqa area on May 22, following which they arrested the suspect, Nidal Eissa Abdullah Abu Ali, a Jordanian, on Monday and transferred the case to public prosecution.
Abu Ali admitted to the crime.
Missing report
On Friday (May 20), Obaida was reported missing from his home in Sharjah’s Industrial Area 8 where his father, Ebrahim Al Aqrabawi, runs a car repair workshop on the ground floor of the building the family lives in.
The suspect, who had been a customer at the workshop, and a frequent visitor for three weeks prior to the abduction, had befriended Obaida, the boy’s mother had told Gulf News.
Abu Ali confessed to the police that on Friday, he had visited the workshop and invited Obaida to watch a cartoon movie in his borrowed vehicle and subsequently, abducted him and attempted to molest the boy.
Strangled
When Obaida resisted his advances and threatened to tell his father about it, Abu Ali strangled the boy.
A delegation from Dubai Police, including Colonel Mohammad Abdullah Al Murr, Director of the Human Rights Department, and Colonel Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah Al Mulla, Director of Total Quality Management, met with Obaida’s father, Ebrahim Al Aqrabawi, and conveyed Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina’s, Dubai Police Chief, condolences as well as the condolences of all of Dubai Police’s task force.
Col Al Murr stressed the solidarity of the UAE government and people with the grieving family, adding that Dubai Police will follow up the case until the verdict is delivered.
