Worker gets 15 years for murdering colleague

Dubai: A worker has been jailed for hitting his colleague's head with an iron bar and killing him because he cursed his family and ridiculed him.

The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the 35-year-old Bangladeshi killer, M.D., to fifteen years in jail. He will be deported after completing his prison term.

The accused claimed that he murdered his compatriot, Z.V., because he slandered him and his mother and belittled him and threatened to expel him from work.

The Public Prosecution charged him with the premeditated murder of Z.V. after beating his head with an iron rod twice during his sleep.

Paramedics said the victim succumbed to his head injuries instantly, meanwhile the accused was found beside the body of the deceased behaving strangely.

An Indian construction engineer testified: "Prior to the incident, the victim came up to me and he was crying because the defendant accused him of stealing his Dh4,000.

"Ten minutes later the accused came to me and claimed that he suspected that the deceased took his Dh4,000 which he was supposed to transfer to his family in India. I advised M.D. not to report the incident to police because he didn't have any evidence and asked them to reconcile because they were colleagues.

The engineer added in his statement that he saw the two together at work and assumed that things were back to normal between them.

"Until a few days later the workers' supervisor informed me that Z.V. had been killed at the construction site in Al Quoz and the accused lay beside him. The workers woke up M.D. who claimed that an unknown suspect committed the murder." Police apprehended the accused who later claimed that the victim used to assault, threaten and ridicule him.