Official: Woman who killed American in UAE committed 'personal terrorist act'

The official said she logged on to "terrorist websites" recently, according to the WAM news agency.

The suspect, who has not been identified, is accused of killing 47-year-old American teacher Ibolya Ryan last week in the restroom of an upscale mall in Abu Dhabi. The accused is a female Emirati national of Yemeni descent, the UAE's Interior Ministry said.

Police say they think Ryan, who was the mother of three children, did not know the attacker.

Her death came two months after the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi issued a statement warning U.S. citizens of an anonymous Internet post that encouraged attacks against teachers at American and other international schools.

The embassy said it was unaware of any specific, credible threat at that time.

Veteran teacher

Ryan was born in Romania and had American and Hungarian citizenship. She had been a teacher for 17 years, according to a Footprints Recruiting profile of her.

Last year, she began teaching in Abu Dhabi, where she lived with her children. Before that, she taught special education in her ex-husband's native Colorado.

Surveillance video released by police shows the moments before and after the mall stabbing.

A veiled figure police identified as the attacker walks calmly through a parking lot entrance, speaks to security guards and picks up a paper before disappearing around a corner and out of sight.

The video later shows the suspect running to an elevator and leaving the mall through the same parking lot doors.

Reem Island, where the attack occurred, is a newly developed area popular with expatriates in the capital.

The motive of the killing was still unclear.

Ex-husband speaks out

Ryan's ex-husband said he was shocked by the fatal stabbing but still feels safe in the UAE.

"I'm totally horrified by what happened," Paul Ryan said. "One just needs to look at the video, the images of that bathroom, and it knocks you out. It knocks you out."

But he said UAE authorities have gone out of their way to ensure his family is taken care of and have offered to pay for his three children's education through college.

"They are treating me like family now," he said. "They have expressed almost precisely in these terms, the children will not have to worry about their education, for their entire education basically."

Paul Ryan has the power to commute the death sentence and grant a pardon if the suspect is found guilty and given capital punishment.

The burden weighs heavily on him, he said.

"I can't believe I have the power to pardon, that is shocking to me. I don't want this responsibility," he said. "As far as I can tell, it seems pretty damning evidence, and she (the suspect) confessed herself. Ibolya, my dear ex-wife, and I do mean that, will not have died in vain."