Woman who admitted to stabbing American teacher to death inside Abu Dhabi mall will face the death penalty as victim's family speaks of their 'devastation and horror'
- The woman who is charged with killing American teacher Ibolya Ryan in Abu Dhabi will face the death penalty
- Ex-husband Paul Ryan said he was 'totally horrified' by what had happened and vowed that his wife will 'not have died in vain'
- Added that it was 'shocking' that he had the power to pardon wife's killer, Dala al Hashemi, who stabbed Ms Ryanin a mall restroom
- An hour later, she 'planted bomb outside the home of an American doctor' and it has been reported she was not a 'lone wolf' in these acts
- Ms Ryan, from Colorado, is a divorced mother with twin boys and a teenage daughter
- Authorities believe the woman targeted Ryan and her doctor based on nationalities
By
MARIO LEDWITH IN ABU DHABI FOR MAILONLINE and
TAHIRA YAQOOB IN DUBAI FOR MAILONLINE and
LYDIA WILLGRESS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 23:09 GMT, 6 December 2014 | UPDATED: 13:58 GMT, 8 December 2014
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he veiled attacker who stabbed an American teacher to death in an upmarket Abu Dhabi mall faces the death penalty after admitting the crime.
Ibolya Ryan, 47, was brutally attacked just hours before the suspect allegedly planted a bomb outside the home of an American doctor in the Arab state.
The special needs teacher’s family spoke for the first time today about how they have been left ‘devastated and traumatised’ by the attack.
Her former husband described the attacker as a 'monster' as he made an emotional tribute to his ex-wife.
Writing online last night, he said: 'Rest in peace, our love. Your beauty and pure love will live on within us, forever.’
Dala al Hashemi, 38, a Yemen-born Emirati national was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murdering the teacher, who had moved to the Middle Eastern country in search of a better life following a divorce.
Police believe that the attacker, who lured Mrs Ryan into a conversation by pretending to be a vulnerable elderly woman, targeted the teacher because of her nationality.
This as shocking new details of Mrs Ryan's final moments have emerged, revealing how she had been lured in to a toilet cubicle after the attacker asked her for assistance.
The Yemeni allegedly turned on Mrs Ryan once inside the cubicle, stabbing her repeatedly with a butcher's knife.
After her attacker fled, the wounded teacher stumbled to the mall's main walkway - only yards from a Waitrose supermarket - but collapsed in a pool of blood.
Speculation has also been mounting that the attacker may have belonged to a terror cell rather than acting as a lone wolf.
During his emotional interview Mr Ryan referenced the ‘forces of darkness and terrorism that expressed themselves very clearly here in the Middle East’.
In a further development, Mr Ryan revealed that the suspect has admitted the crime according to local police.
Discussing the possible conviction of his former wife's alleged attacker, he said: 'As far as I can tell so far, it's seems pretty damning evidence and she had confessed.'
Mr Ryan said that he had been left traumatised after viewing images released by local police after the attack.
The pictures show the blood-stained knife used by the attacker on the restroom floor, as well as a trail of blood left by Mrs Ryan as she stumbled for help.
Mr Ryan said: ‘Obviously I am totally horrified by what happened. You only need to look at the images of that bathroom. I still hope my children haven’t seen that.
Fighting back tears, he added: ‘Those beautiful children that I have…making sure that they get the comfort and the sense of their mother and their future.’
‘My dear Ibolyah, and I do mean that, will not have died in vain.’
A devastated Mr Ryan also said that he believes the attacker may have belonged to a terrorist cell.
UAE police also told ABC News about reports that the suspect was 'not a lone wolf' and her house was 'a base of operations'.
‘There might be a cell involved, certainly, but after seeing the video of how she was captured and what was in her car, she had everything there all for herself,’ they said.
‘She is thought of as a lone wolf. As an American I can easily view that with some scepticism. Initially I thought why couldn’t it be part of a terrorist cell?’
Al Hashemi was arrested in a raid on her house and is also accused of trying to bomb an Egyptian-American doctor, said Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed al Nahyan, the minister of the interior for the United Arab Emirates, at a press conference on Thursday.
As expats living in the country expressed their fears following the incident, the US State Department's issued a new warning telling Americans to change their routines in case they are also targeted.
It said: 'We suggest that all U.S. citizens be vigilant of their surroundings and events unfolding around them.'
Following the couple's 'amicable divorce', Mr Ryan moved to Vienna while his former wife relocated to Abu Dhabi for 'better financial and moral independence'.
The couple's daughter, 13, went with her father to Europe to attend a boarding school while their 11-year-old male twins moved to Abu Dhabi with Mrs Ryan.
The distraught father said that the family had considered moving back to the US together after the boys had finished their education in the arab state.
Mrs Ryan’s killer may face the death penalty in the country if found guilty of her murder, however national laws allow the family of the victim to issue a pardon.
The teacher’s former husband said that he had still not made up his mind about whether he would do this.
‘I can’t believe I have the power to pardon. That is shocking to me. I don’t even want that responsibility. But we’ll have to wait and see,’ he told CNN.
After arriving in the country only days after his wife was targeted due to her nationality, he said he felt safe in the Arab state.
He admitted previously being ‘fearful’ of being an American in the Middle East.
Mr Ryan said in a statement tonight to the government-run Emirates News Agency: ‘When I viewed that video that showed the arrest and the crime scene, I felt grateful for capturing such a monster.
‘I feel very grateful for what I've seen here. When I got here, I had some preconceptions about how the situation would be here.
‘But what happened is that my doubts were dispelled. I felt that the forces of darkness and terrorism that expressed themselves very clearly here in the Middle East will disappear with time, thanks to the forces of good that I saw here.’
He also told of the heartbreaking moment his twin sons realised their mother had been murdered after waiting for her in the shopping mall as she was being attacked.
He told The National they had gone to use the male restrooms in Boutik Mall while she went to the women's toilets and had agreed to meet her in a coffeeshop afterward.
'They waited there for an hour wondering what had happened,' he said.
'They saw police officers run by at one point but then they just waited for her.
'She didn't come and they looked around and couldn't find her so they went home, which is just steps away from this mall. They went home and waited for her there."
Mr Ryan said he was trying to keep the horrors of what happened that day from them.
'They know she was attacked," he said. "I have asked them not to watch that video, not to see the scenes of the bathroom and I hope they don't.'
He added he had newfound respect for the UAE government after seeing 'the seriousness with which they take everything.'
Mr Ryan said: 'I began to realise how personally they took this attack in this society and that they were deeply wounded by it, they were shocked and angered by it, that this could happen.'
The Government has pledged to pay the school and university costs for the three children from their 17-year marriage.
'We try to remember what is important,' said Mr Ryan. 'She was just a very pure-hearted, beautiful person and would never hurt anybody.
'Everybody loved her, enjoyed her vivaciousness, her very positive outlook on life, bubbly personality.
'That was certainly what they will always remember and what everyone remembers.'
Ms Ryan came from humble beginnings in a small, rural village in Romania. She went on to earn her master’s degree in special education and eventually sought to live a financially independent life in the UAE.
She will be flown back to be buried in her homeland, where her mother and older brother still live.
The thousands of dollars raised through a fundraising campaign will be donated to her relatives in Romania.
Mr Ryan added: "My focus has been strictly on the kids. The investigation is out of my hands.
'Of course I want the perpetrator captured and whatever was behind her to be discovered and wrapped up – of course I want that. That’s important for a sense of closure, but really, that’s out of my hands.'
In a reflection of the concern felt at the top of the government over the killing, she said: 'Our UAE society is known for tolerance and harmony among all nationalities.
'We are a country that respects and encourages all cultures to live in peace and security.'
At the same time, Mrs Ryan's other employers, Footprints Recruitment, has launched a
campaign asking for funds to educate her children and repatriate her body.
'We are hoping to raise as much money as possible to help this family torn apart and to ensure that the children have access to the education that she had dedicated her life to,' the company said on its website.
'The family is in need of financial assistance to establish an educational trust for the children and help with other costs incurred.'
Mrs Ryan, who was Hungarian-born, raised in Romania and trained as a teacher in the U.S., was left in a pool of blood after what police said was a 'brawl' in the toilets of the upmarket Bourik Mall.
As security guards rushed to the scene of the killing, her attacker calmly got in an elevator and walked out into the car park. The assailant left behind the weapon, a large kitchen knife.
In the newly-released video, the suspect is then seen heading towards the doctor's home with a small black suitcase. A security guard said he saw her enter and then leave quickly.
The bomb was spotted when the doctor's son was going to mosque in the evening to pray and noticed the strange object in front of the house.
Colonel Rashid Bourshid, head of the criminal investigation department, said: 'The doctor who was targeted with the bomb, 46-year-old MH, informed the security guard about the strange package in front of his door.
'The guard in turn informed the police who rushed to the spot and evacuated the site.
'They dismantled the bomb and identified its primitive components that included small gas cylinders, a lighter, glue, and nails to cause maximum injuries when detonated.'
It set off alarm bells as a woman wearing a niqab and gloves had called at the house several days earlier to see if the family was home - then fled at top speed before the doctor or his wife could identify her.
She was also seen driving a white SUV with a United Arab Emirates Flag across its back window and had tried to disguise the vehicle's license plates.
'Your brothers at the Ministry of Interior and security forces have worked all night and day to reach this suspect and to identify her, despite all of her attempts to disguise herself,' Sheikh Saif said.
He said the woman was identified in less than 24 hours and arrested in less than 48 hours. It is unclear how authorities were able to identify the suspect.
Separate CCTV footage released by authorities earlier this week showed that the suspect spent at least an hour apparently waiting in the toilets of the mall.
She entered the mall from the car park at 1.12pm and after apparently asking a security guard for directions, headed to the restroom. An hour and a half later she is seen leaving the toilets.
Witnesses told MailOnline that they overheard a heated row between two women and then heard one threaten to kill the other.
Vithi Cuc, a Vietnamese restaurant worker, was in a toilet cubicle when she heard banging sounds from the disabled toilet cubicle next door.
She said: 'Then I heard one of them threatening the other saying: 'Sit down or I'll kill you'.' I heard one of them try to call out for help. By this time there were three of us outside the toilet and one of us ran to get security.
'When the female guard arrived they told us to leave the bathroom. I was so scared and frightened for her.'
Another witness said he saw a woman bleeding on the floor outside the entrance to Waitrose, the upscale British supermarket nearest the toilets in the mall.
Bernadette Ruizo, manager of La Brioche restaurant near the scene of the murder, said: 'I heard she was stabbed five or six times.
'None of us knows exactly what happened as it was so busy in the restaurant. There was a crowd around the toilet entrance and I only found out afterwards what had happened.'
On the CCTV footage, people on the scene can be seen reacting to the killing. One mother with a young child can be seen hurrying him away while security guards move towards the corridor.
She then calmly goes down to the parking garage and is last seen moving towards cars in it.
In new footage released on Thursday, the suspect can be seen walking towards a parking lot of vehicles while dragging a small dark suitcase on wheels, although it is not clear when this was taken.
She then apparently drives off in a white SUV draped with the flag.
The victim - who is divorced from the father of the twins, 11, and their older daughter, 13 - described herself in an online profile as a teacher at a large kindergarten called Al Oula in Abu Dhabi, 35 minutes away from the downtown area of the emirate.
She had previously lived in Denver, Colorado, where she worked as a special educational needs teacher and took a course in teaching English as a foreign language.
She has also worked as an executive assistant at a Colorado technology company, an event planner at a Hungarian hotel, a substitute teacher at the American International School in Vienna, and a part-time events planner in Abu Dhabi.
She wrote: 'I enjoy learning about other cultures, and as a person I enjoy being with others and tend to be an organizer of those around me.
'Also I have high interest in other languages; one of my goals while here in the UAE is to gain some proficiency in Arabic.
'I live in Abu Dhabi with my 10-year-old twin boys and I teach in a big KG school named Al Oula KG School, 35 minutes away from downtown Abu Dhabi.'
The victim's ex-husband, Paul, was said to be overseas but was flying back to comfort his sons.
Mrs Ryan lived in a beachside apartment on Reem Island, where the mall where she was murdered is situated. Her ex-husband is believed to currently live in Europe.
After her murder, America's embassy in Abu Dhabi issued new security advice to US citizens.
In a statement, the embassy said: 'On December 1, a U.S. citizen was killed in a public restroom at a shopping mall on Reem Island in Abu Dhabi. The U.S. Embassy is working with all the appropriate authorities to seek further information.'
It listed extra precautions for US citizens, saying they should avoid crowds and places they did not know previously, and 'minimize their profile in public'.
The embassy did not say it was linked the murder to the jihadi threat, which was highlighted to American citizens at the end of October in a statement on the embassy website.
It said: 'The Embassy/Consulate wishes to notify the U.S. citizen community of a recent anonymous posting on a Jihadist website that encouraged attacks against teachers at American and other international schools in the Middle East.
'The Mission is unaware of any specific, credible threat against any American or other school or individual in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
'Nonetheless, the Mission is working with local schools identified with the United States to review their security posture. U.S. citizens residing in or visiting the UAE should remain vigilant regarding their personal security and be alert to local security developments.'
Reem Island is a residential, commercial and business development connected to Abu Dhabi city centre by a bridge. It was built as the city center became over-populated.
It is mostly inhabited by expatriates and boasts the upmarket Boutik Mall, which opened in 2011 and has 50 shops and restaurants, including the capital city's first Waitrose, the upscale British supermarket chain, Leopold's of London and La Brioche.
The mall bridges two residential buildings, Sun and Sky towers. Its website says it 'offers the best of everything that anyone needs to lead a stylish life.
'Serving the vibrant and cosmopolitan community of Shams Abu Dhabi and beyond, Boutik is an oasis of independent retailers, brand outlets, comfortable cafes and day-to-day services.
'For busy professionals living and working in the adjoining towers and for students at the Sorbonne, it is a welcome social centre and cornerstone of the community.'
Although Abu Dhabi is not the largest emirate - Dubai has the biggest population - it has an estimated 40,000 American expatriates.
Woman who admitted to stabbing American teacher to death inside Abu Dhabi mall will face the death penalty as victim's family speaks of their 'devastation and horror' | Daily Mail Online
