Dubai — A cook lost his appeal on Sunday and confirmed the sentence of life imprisonment for killing his co-worker who molested his girlfriend and invited him to bed after a private celebration.

The 28-year-old Nepalese cook and his colleagues were having a private party in celebration of the promotion of one of them at the restaurant where they all worked in December.

One of the invitees, a Nepalese waiter, was intoxicated and tried to flirt with the defendant’s Nepalese girlfriend when she went to the washroom in a flat in Al Rashidiya.

The 28-year-old heard his girlfriend shouting at the drunk waiter when he molested her and he rushed to help her.

When the 28-year-old defendant tried to stop the waiter from molesting his girlfriend, the victim molested the cook and invited him to bed to have sex with him.

Outraged angered with the victim’s behaviour, the accused grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the waiter who dropped dead on his bed.

In September, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Nepalese accused of stabbing the victim to death and jailed him for life.

The defendant appealed his life sentence before the Appeal Court and sought to have his punishment reduced.

Citing self-defence, the appellant pleaded not guilty and denied having had the intention to kill the victim.

Presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif rejected the defendant’s appeal and upheld his life imprisonment.

The accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment, according to Sunday’s ruling.

When the victim failed to show up for work, a colleague went to check on him at his residence and discovered the murder.

Being the last two individuals seen with the victim, the defendant and his girlfriend were apprehended by the police.

During police questioning, the accused denied any involvement at first but later admitted that he stabbed the waiter for molesting him and his girlfriend.

A police lieutenant said they were informed about the murder when one of the victim’s co-workers went to check why he [deceased] didn’t report to work.

“A police team was dispatched to a flat in Ras Al Khor where the murder had taken place. On-site investigations revealed that a group of restaurant workers were celebrating. Primary interrogations also revealed that the accused, who shared the flat with the victim, had been involved in the murder. We apprehended the accused and his girlfriend … during questioning the accused claimed that the incident happened after the waiter molested his girlfriend. He said that when he went to save his girlfriend, the victim touched him indecently and asked to have sex with him. He said he felt offended by the waiter’s behaviour and stabbed him with a knife,” the lieutenant said.

The appellate judgement remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.