Masseur accused of assaulting policemen, injuring one of them

Dubai: A masseur has been accused of assaulting two policemen and breaking the little finger of one of them when they tried to apprehend him for offering massage to pedestrians in public.

The 20-year-old Vietnamese masseur, V.J., was said to have resisted arrest and assaulted the policemen, who had tried to restrain him while offering massage for clients in Bur Dubai in November 2014.

Prosecutors accused V.J. of resisting arrest and assaulting two law enforcement officers and causing permanent disability to one of them.

The defendant did not appear before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday when he was scheduled to enter his plea.

Presiding judge Ezzat Mansour adjourned the hearing until the suspect is legally notified about the next hearing on January 11.

According to the charges, prosecutors said the suspect resisted arrest ferociously and assaulted the policemen, one of whom was left with a 2 per cent permanent disability in his little finger.

The injured policeman claimed to prosecutors that the incident happened while he and his partner were patrolling in a street in Bur Dubai.

“We spotted the defendant and another person stopping pedestrians and inviting them to go for a massage at a spa. We approached the two persons and identified ourselves as policemen … then we asked them to escort us. One of them ran away meanwhile. I chased him for a while but I did not catch him. When I turned back towards my partner, I saw him wrestling with V.J. and trying to handcuff him. The Vietnamese was resisting arrest ferociously … I rushed to help my partner, but V.J. attacked me as well. We fell down on the ground and my little finger got fractured,” he testified to prosecutors.

The other policeman confirmed his partner’s statement when questioned by prosecutors.

Dubai police’s forensic doctors confirmed that the assaulted policeman sustained a permanent disability in his little finger on the right hand.