Court orders re-trial of UAE man

THE Court of Appeals has ordered the retrial of a UAE man, who has been charged with the premeditated murder of his Egyptian girlfriend after he denied killing her and cutting her body to pieces in their Cairo flat last year, judiciary sources said yesterday.

Mahmoud Ibrahim Soksok, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) national, was tried and sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison for murdering the woman at their house in Heliopolis on February 9, 2009, the sources said.

  After the crime, Soksok had fled from Egypt to Syria, where he was arrested and extradited by the Interpol to serve the term.

  However, he appealed the jail sentence that had been handed down late last year, the sources said.

  The Court of Appeals decided to overturn the previous conviction and ordered a retrial for Soksok, they added.

  "Soksok will be remanded in custody and will appear at another court soon. But, no date has been set for the re-trial," his lawyer said. After the ruling was delivered, the parents of the victim, Faten Reda Abdul Rahman, burst into tears and were comforted by family members and friends.