Man assaults taxi driver when told not to smoke in car

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court on Wednesday heard the case of a GCC man, 61, who attempted to assault a taxi driver with a knife after the driver told him not to smoke inside the vehicle while dropping him at his destination.

The suspect also assaulted a policeman verbally with indecent words while arresting him.

Details date back to August 2019, when a taxi driver testified the suspect, who appeared to be drunk, stopped him and sat on the front seat and started smoking.

He added, “He pulled the counter screen of the fare and broke it, took a knife out of his pocket and attempted to attack me but I stopped him and went down to find a policeman.”

A Dubai Police officer testified the driver came to him near the Union Metro Station and reported the suspect to him. The policeman accompanied the driver to the vehicle where he saw the suspect in an abnormal condition, with a knife in his hand. He assaulted a policeman verbally with indecent words.

The court ordered his continued detention pending the case, after he confessed to attacking the driver and the policeman.