Waiver saves stabber from tough penalty

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A worker stabbed his workmate for mocking his religion during a work-related dispute. He walked free from court on Tuesday after the workmate forgave him.

The Asian defendant –a loading and offloading worker, 39- attacked the Sri Lankan driver, 44, with a knife inside a labourers’ accommodation in Bur Dubai on Oct.26 last year, the Dubai Criminal Court heard on Apr.9

Prosecutors charged him with attempted murder and described the strike on the victim’s stomach as fatal. He survived thanks to swift surgical intervention, they said and demanded the toughest punishment applicable.

The defendant was under the influence of alcohol that day. Both litigants reached an amicable settlement.

 The court declared the attempted murder case expired. It referred the alcohol abuse charge to the Misdemeanours Court.

The victim complained before police and prosecutors that he went to the defendant’s room to talk to a relative who shared the room with the defendant. “The defendant picked a knife from under his bed and stabbed my stomach.

“He then started crying and apologising for having done so. There were no earlier misunderstandings between us,” he said and refuted the defendant’s contention that he had insulted him and mocked his religion.

Their compatriot, 44, testified that the defendant refused to go to work. The victim pestered him to get out of the room for work. Both engaged in a heated argument. When the victim entered the room, the defendant stabbed him.

Another compatriot, 45, told prosecutors that both the defendant and the victim had a heated argument that day after which both entered the room. Shortly, the victim walked out complaining that the defendant stabbed him.

Before police and prosecutors, the defendant confessed to have hit the victim using a knife. “I stabbed him once,” he said. The victim was rushed to hospital. The injury took more than 20 days to heal, a medical report showed.