Dubai businesswoman meets violent death in NYC
Birmingham Star Sunday 20th September, 2009
The President and founder of a leading Dubai property firm has been found strangled with a knife sticking from her neck, in a luxury hotel In New York.
Co-incidently the hotel is owned by the ruler of Dubai, while the operator of the hotel is also a Dubai company.
Andree Bejjani, 44, President of Dubai-based Royal Investments LLC, was found dead in an apartment on the 10th floor of the five star Jumeirah Essex House hotel on Saturday.
A housekeeping manager at the hotel has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder over the killing. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Sunday police were exploring the possibility that the murder was sexually motivated.
The hotel executive was arrested only hours after the body of Ms Bejjani was discovered, and made a full confession. He has been named as 29-year-old Derrick Praileu, who lived in the Bronx. He is married with two children.
The New York medical examiner's office says the woman was strangled before the knife was plunged into her.
The Essex House, a 45-storey Art Deco building, was built in 1931. Sheik Muhammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, bought the hotel four years ago for $440 million, and spent another $90 million refurbishing the property.
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