Student fined for setting foe’s home on fire

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A student after disputing with his peer purchased petro and set the latter’s family villa on fire. The Dubai Appeals Court fined and warned him on Sunday.

The Arab student, 21, deliberately set fire to the main door of the inhabited villa in Al Warqaa area at around 9pm on Jun.27 last year. The door burnt to ashes. Prosecutors valued the cost of damage at Dhs12, 000.

Prosecutors also charged him with committing an act that put the lives of the villa’s occupants at risk. He reportedly confessed during interrogations. The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced him to three months in prison.

However, it suspended the punishment and warned him not to repeat the same again. Prosecutors appealed the ruling. The Dubai Appeals Court slapped him with a Dhs11, 760 fine.

In police records, the peer’s father –a 51-year-old Emirati employee- narrated that he was inside the villa when he saw bright light coming from outside.

He walked out to the yard and saw the main door gutted in flames.

He got a hose and started spraying it with water to put the fire out but to no avail. Meanwhile, he spotted a Nissan vehicle whose driver was busy throwing a flammable liquid on the door to keep it burning, he explained.

“The driver had covered the vehicle’s number plates. I failed to read them. My son notified me he had disputed with the defendant while inside a café and the defendant threatened to take revenge with a few days.”

An Emirati captain who took part in the arrest narrated, “The defendant confessed and explained that on the date of the incident he disputed with the victim’s son inside a café in the Dubai International City.

“He drove in his Nissan vehicle to a petrol station in Al Khawaneej, purchased petrol for Dhs25, drove to the villa, doused the main door with petrol, set it on fire and sped off.” He appeared on the petro station’s CCTV footage.