Dubai: An employee lost his appeal and will spend a year in jail for stabbing his flatmate with a knife and causing him a permanent disability after he asked him to stop drinking liquor.
The 45-year-old Bangladeshi victim walked in to the flat that he shared with others and saw the 53-year-old Indian suspect drinking liquor in December.
When he asked the suspect to stop drinking in the flat, both of them got into a heated argument and the victim went out of flat at 9pm.
When he returned later and was in the corridor, the suspect took him by surprise and stabbed him in his back and left him with a 25 per cent disability.
The victim suffered a deep knife wound in his palm as he defended himself when the employee tried to stab him a second time in his belly.
Other flatmates intervened once they heard the victim shouting in pain and stopped the suspect from continuing his knife attack.
The Bangladeshi victim was rushed to hospital and police apprehended the Indian suspect.
In October, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of assaulting the victim and jailed him for six months.
Prosecutors appealed the primary judgement and sought to have the Appeal Court to stiffen his punishment.
The defendant also appealed and asked the appellate court to acquit him after he pleaded not guilty.
“It was a mutual assault … he attacked me first and I defended myself,” he told the court.
Presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif rejected the defendant’s appeal and accepted that of the prosecutors.
The appellate court stiffened the defendant’s punishment to one year in jail.
He will be deported after serving his punishment.
The victim said the accused stabbed him because he had asked him to stop drinking alcohol in the flat.
“He stabbed me in the back and when he tried to stab me in the belly, I stopped him and injured my palm. Flatmates stopped him and I was taken to hospital,” he testified.
The ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 20 days.
