Students used knuckleduster on driver

Dubai: Two students who left an employee with a permanent eye disability after hitting him with a knuckleduster following a road rage incident, stood trial on Thursday.

"You animal...," S.S., the Emirati employee, 29, quoted his compatriot students as saying when they assaulted him, according to Public Prosecution records.

The students, 22-year-old F.A. and 20-year-old A.A., denied assaulting and posing a threat to the life of the employee and pleaded not guilty before Dubai Court of First Instance which looked into what records have marked as the fourth road rage case to surface recently.

"I didn't stop him ... he forced me to pull over and walked towards me," one of the suspects told Presiding Judge Abdul Majid Al Nezamy yesterday.

The Public Prosecution charged the defendants with cursing and assaulting their compatriot, S.S., and causing him five per cent permanent disability in his left eye.

F.A. was charged with endangering S.S.'s life when he braked suddenly and dangerously in front of his vehicle. A.A. was charged with causing Dh8,244 worth damages to S.S.'s vehicle at which he threw a piece of metal.

S.S. testified: "I [was driving] home from Deira towards Bur Dubai around 2.30am ... I used the high beam for F.A. to give me way. The suspect used his brakes three to four times in a dangerous manner that forced me to press my brakes hard to avoid collision. I kept driving towards Shaikh Zayed Road and at the first chance I overtook the defendants' car ... then the suspects' car jumped one lane and chased me. A.A. threw a heavy metal piece at my car. We pulled over and we walked out of our vehicles ... they assaulted me with knuckleduster and they called me bad names."

The suspect used his brakes three to four times in a dangerous manner that forced me to press my brakes hard to avoid collision."