Dubai: A detainee was sentenced to six months in jail for deliberately setting fire to his pillow and blanket inside his jail cell and endangering the lives of his cellmates.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 47-year-old Emirati detainee, A.T., in two separate arson cases and handed him a three-month imprisonment in each case.
The judge also ordered him to pay to Dubai Police Dh15 and Dh85 for the pillow and blanket he set fire to.
When the defendant appeared in courtroom three, he pleaded not guilty and firmly refuted his charges saying: “I don’t know anything about those accusations.
“I have got nothing to do with this fabricated case. Where are the accusation sheets? Show them to me? How can I be tried without even receiving or being showed the accusation sheets?”
Prosecutors charged A.T. with using a lighter and deliberately setting fire to his pillow in Dubai Central Jail on April 23 in the first case.
He was charged with using a lighter and deliberately setting his blanket alight in the Central Jail on May 5 in the second case.
Prosecutors also accused him of causing Dh100 worth of damage to police property and endangering the lives of other prisoners.
The accused was heard shouting in front of the judge when he first appeared in court earlier this month.
The judge repeatedly read out the accusations to A.T. because he could not clearly understand.
“Are you an Arab? Do you understand Arabic? Are you Egyptian? If you want I can explain my defence in Egyptian. Go prosecute President Hosni Mubarak…” the defendant was heard shouting in courtroom three when he appeared in court.
A Yemeni jail warden testified that the defendant set his pillow on fire because he was placed in solitary confinement. He also threatened to commit suicide if he was not removed from there, claimed the jail warden.
An Emirati first policeman testified in the second case that the fire alarm sounded after A.T. set his blanket and clothes on fire.
The primary judgement in both cases remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
