A Jordanian man has been executed in Dubai for the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Jordanian child, in a crime that caused shock and outrage in the UAE.

Dubai authorities carried out the execution by firing squad of Nidal Issa Abdullah, 50, at 8am on Thursday morning, after he was convicted of raping and murdering Obaidah Sidqi in May 2016.

The child’s father, Ibrahim Sidqi, and other family members attended the execution.

Abdullah kidnapped the child in front of his father’s workplace in Sharjah, UAE, before driving him to Ajman, according to the Public Prosecution in Dubai.

He took the child to the Al Mamzar area in Dubai where he parked his car and raped the child, before killing him, suffocating using a piece of cloth he used to clean his car.

Abdullah threw the child’s body in the street in Al Warqa’a and headed to his brother’s house in the same area.

The Court of Cassation in Dubai closed the lawsuit in February 2017, after sentencing the man to death.