Visitor gets life sentence for murder in Dubai, accomplices jailed for 10 years

The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a verdict issued by the Court of First Instance, giving a life sentence to a UAE visitor for intentionally killing a fellowman, and sentencing five others to 10 years in jail for abetting the defendant.

The incident, which took place in a café near Dubai Water Canal, dated back to May last year when an Arab waiter reported a stabbing incident to the police, adding that he had seen a number of the café customers chasing a man who came to the café with another man.

One of the defendants took a knife out of his pocket and chased the victim, who tried to resist him and push him with a chair from the café, while the rest of the defendants pushed the victim’s friend away when he tried to defend him, the waiter said.

He saw the victim trying to escape in a vehicle belonging to another person that was parked near the café but its driver refused to let the victim into it, the waiter added, noting that at that point, the defendant stabbed the victim in the chest, causing him to fall down with blood all over him.

The police were informed of the incident accordingly and an ambulance was called to the scene.

A policeman stated in the interrogations that a team of detectives managed to identify the suspects and to arrest two of them within three hours from the report. The other suspects were arrested at the airport while trying to travel to a European country, he added.

On interrogation, the defendants admitted that they belonged to the same family and came to the UAE from a European country to chase the victim and take revenge from him over earlier disputes in their home country.

While walking in an area in the emirate, they came across the victim in the café where the incident took place, they said. They admitted that they were abetting the first defendant in his murder and they were trying to flee the country.

According to the court, the first defendant premeditatedly killed the victim over family feuds and revenge in their home country after contriving ways to do so.

For this purpose, he tracked him down and learned that he was in the UAE so he traveled to Dubai after he had bought a knife from a hunting equipment store on his way to the airport.

The defendant carried his knife with him while he was roaming around Dubai, expecting that he would encounter the victim and preparing himself for the anticipated confrontation at any time.

No sooner he saw the victim with his companion in a café in front of the waterfront talking on his phone than he pulled his knife and headed fast to him to take revenge, while the other defendants followed suit.

The defendant was alone with the victim after two of the defendants followed the victim’s friend to prevent him from interfering. After cornering him, the defendant stabbed twice the victim and the latter succumbed to his injuries.