Francis Matthew, an editor the English-language Gulf News, residing in the UAE was found guilty of jabbing his wife — to whom he had been married for over 30 years — to death with a hammer. A local court pronounced its verdict on Sunday and sentenced the man to 10 years in prison.
Neither Matthew, nor his attorney attended the court hearing in the Dubai Court of First Instance. Matthew's lawyer, Ali al-Shamsi, later said that he would file an appeal against the court's decision.
For his part, a brother of Matthew's wife, who was present at the hearing, said he was disappointed with the outcome.
"Our family has been saddened by the sentence given to Francis Matthew, Jane's killer. We believe the facts clearly demonstrate that this crime was a deliberate act," Peter Manning was quoted by AP as saying.
Earlier, the journalist had faced the possibility of the death penalty.
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The incident took place in July 2017 when Dubai police received a call from Matthew's villa in Dubai. After police officers arrived to the editor's home, they found his wife dead, and the journalist told them that burglars had broken into his home and murdered her.
Later, however, the man confessed that he had a fight with his wife over financial problems and lost his temper when she allegedly pushed him, called him a "loser" and told him that he "should provide financially," according to police reports.
He then grabbed a hammer and struck her repeatedly until she died, trying to make everything look like it was a robbery the next day, police said.
Gulf News confirmed that Matthew worked as its editor from 1995-2005 and then became a roving editor. At the time of the murder, the man was still employed by the newspaper.
