Downtown Dubai (illustration)
Downtown Dubai (illustration)Reuters

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday executed a jihadist-influenced woman from the Gulf state who murdered an American teacher in an Abu Dhabi shopping mall bathroom stall with a knife last December 1, reports state media.

The woman, Alaa Bader al-Hashemi (30), was executed at dawn after UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan approved her death sentenced which was handed down late last month, the official WAM news agency said as cited by AFP.

Reports did not indicate the means of execution.

Hashemi stabbed to death 47-year-old Ibolya Ryan, a mother of three. She was also convicted of planting a handmade pipe bomb outside the home of an Egyptian-American doctor just hours later on the same day, although the bomb did not explode.

The verdict revealed that the woman spread information online meant to "jeopardize" the UAE, and sent funds to Al Qaeda in Yemen knowing the money would aid terrorism.

Hashemi was caught on CCTV footage dressed all in black at the bathroom murder scene and the building where the doctor lived. She had been called the "Reem Island Ghost" after the name of the mall's location.

The murderer was arrested at her home; her car had blood smeared on the steering wheel and inside it materials to construct a home-made bomb were found.

During the trial Hashemi asked the court to give her psychological help, claiming she was suffering a mental illness that caused her to have "unreal visions" and see "ghost-like people."

The court had her take psychiatric tests which it said showed she was aware of her actions.

Attorney General Salem Saeed Kubaish said in March that investigators had revealed the woman had "listened to lectures by late Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, watched video clips of killings and beheadings."

She "embraced takfiri (apostate - ed.) and jihadist ideology and then engaged in terrorist acts in support of the terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and Daesh," he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State (ISIS).