Dubai: Ten bootleggers escaped the death sentence after a court modified charges of premeditated murder and re-charged them with beating their rival which led to his death.
The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the ten defendants, seven Indians, two Pakistanis and a Bangladeshi, to two years in jail each followed by deportation.
Prosecutors accused the bootleggers of premeditatedly murdering their Indian rival by attacking him with wooden bars and iron clubs.
The court did not agree with the prosecution's accusation and motive that the defendants intended to premeditatedly kill the victim and decided to cancel the premeditated murder charge and re-charge the defendants with beating the victim A.K. which led to his death.
The incident happened between two bootlegging groups competing for the jurisdiction of selling and providing liquor to residents. The first defendant led a group of bootleggers and fought with A.K. and his group members.
"The attackers did not have any intention of murdering the victim… had they had that intention they could have attacked him on fatal parts of his body."
The court also jailed five other defendants to three months each for obscuring information about the assault and failing to report it to the police.
‘Ordinary fight'
Prosecutors had asked the court to implement the toughest punishment — capital punishment — against the defendants.
The ten defendants, aged between 22 and 54, pleaded not guilty and denied intentionally killing A.K. when they appeared in court.
A 25-year-old defendant, H.H. said: "It was an ordinary fight which led to the victim's death. It was not premeditated murder. He cursed us over the phone and then when he came to face us, we fought… we did not intend or pre-plan to kill him."
An Emirati police first lieutenant said some workers discovered A.K.'s body at a construction site in Jumeirah Village. "Police sniffer dogs tracked down one of the defendants [a watchman at a nearby site and who witnessed the assault] through his shoe which was left at the crime scene. The body was partially covered with sand. The watchman admitted that he and others saw the fight which happened due to rivalry between two bootlegging gangs.
He said A.K. was gruesomely beaten on his head and different parts of his body. The attackers were armed with wooden bars and iron shafts," the first lieutenant told prosecutors. Another police lieutenant testified the victim's body was pulled for nearly 30 metres from where he was attacked.
The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
