Dubai: Three brothers and their two friends have been jailed for life for premeditated murder of a man using sharp weapons and dousing him with sulphuric acid.

The five Emirati men attacked their countryman victim with knives, swords, cleavers, and a shovel and poured sulphuric acid on him, killing him in front of the brothers’ house in Al Warqa in March 2015.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the five defendants, aged between 20 and 33, of ganging up against the victim, stabbing him repeatedly with sharp weapons and then pouring sulphuric acid on him.

The convicts also beat up the victim’s three Emirati friends when they tried to intervene.

The five accused had pleaded not guilty and refuted the accusations in court

One of the assaulted friends testified that the incident happened when he accompanied another friend and went to see one of the defendants in Al Warqa.

“I remained in the car while my friend went to speak with one of the brothers. In the meanwhile, I called up the victim [who lives nearby] and asked him to come by. I did not know there was a previous conflict between the deceased and the brothers. The victim stopped at a distance and I went to see him after he informed me that he did not want any trouble with the person my companion was speaking to due to a previous conflict. The defendants chased the victim once they spotted him … and following a heated argument, a fight broke out between the defendants and the victim and his two friends who were present with him in his car. We intervened and stopped the fight … the defendants calmed down for a few minutes but then they resumed fighting. Then they brought sharp weapons and stabbed the victim viciously. When I tried to interfere to save the victim, they sprinkled sulphuric acid on me. I sustained serious burns on different parts of my body,” the man said.

“The stabbed victim had already collapsed and was covered in blood. The victim’s two friends, who were also assaulted by the defendants, ran away. When I carried the victim to rush him to hospital, the defendants carried their weapons and entered their house. I drove to the hospital … one of the emergency paramedics told me that the victim [who was still alive then] asked to see me. When I entered the emergency ward to see the victim, he grabbed my hand and told me ‘I will die …’ and he died,” said the witness.

A police captain said the defendants were apprehended one at a time.

“During questioning, two of the brothers admitted they assaulted the victim, while the rest of the defendants denied their involvement in the attack,” testified the captain.

Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.