Dubai: A holidaymaker lost his appeal and will be jailed for a year for beating a policeman, who tried to arrest him for stealing a mobile phone from a store.

The 29-year-old Algerian holidaymaker and his two countrymen walked into a mobiles store in Naif in February.

Mistaking them for buyers, the store manager showed the Algerian trio some mobiles before he discovered that a phone was stolen shortly after they had left his store.

The Pakistani store manager chased the three men outside and asked them to stop to check who had stolen the phone.

The Algerians denied the man’s claims and shouted at him when he accused them of stealing the phone.

The Pakistani then called up the police.

A police patrol was dispatched to the store and when a policeman was trying to apprehend the 29-year-old, who was suspected to have stolen the phone, the latter beat the policeman.

In June, the Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the defendant to a year jail followed by deportation for assaulting the policeman. He was referred to the Dubai Misdemeanours Court to be tried for stealing a phone worth Dh500.

The defendant appealed his primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to have his punishment reduced.

On Wednesday, presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm dismissed the defendant’s appeal and upheld his one-year imprisonment. The accused will be deported after serving his jail term.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty and denied assaulting the policeman. He contended before the appellate court that he did not know that the victim is a policeman.

“He came towards me and wanted to catch me. He had a local dress on and was not in a police uniform. I did not know that he is a policeman and pushed him away from me,” he defended in court.

The policeman said the 29-year-old was shown on the surveillance cameras stealing the phone.

“When I tried to restrain him, he pushed me and tried to stop me from apprehending him. During questioning, he tried to deny at first but later he admitted that he was the one who stole the phone,” the policeman claimed.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.