Dubai Court of Appeal has increased the jail sentence handed to a former newspaper editor convicted of killing his wife with a hammer.
Francis Matthew, former editor of Gulf News, was found guilty in March this year of assault leading to death, after he struck his wife Jane Matthew with a hammer in their villa in Dubai in July 2017.
Matthew had originally told police that their home was broken into by robbers, who killed his wife. At a later interrogation, he confessed that the couple had a heated argument over finances.
He also claimed his wife pushed him and called him a “loser”, after which he followed her into the bedroom and struck her twice on her head with a hammer, according to a police report.
Matthew lodged an appeal over the length of the sentence. The victim’s family said in a statement to media they were “very upset” that her husband was filing an appeal, and asked the court of appeal to overturn the original verdict for a harsher sentence.
Dubai Court of Appeal increased the sentence to 15 years.
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