Dubai: Two men, who pelted a policeman with stones and beat him when he tried to handcuff one of them while putting massage service cards on car windshields, have been jailed for six months

The Nigerian men, aged 25 and 29, were putting massage service cards on cars in Al Nahda when a police patrol team was dispatched to the area in May.

One of the policemen showed his police ID to the 25-year-old man, who turned quickly and tried to abscond.

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When the policeman grabbed the man to foil his bid to abscond, the Nigerian resisted him for a while but the policeman shackled his one hand with the handcuff.

When the policeman tried to shackle the second hand, the 25-year-old called his countryman loudly for help and to prevent the policeman from apprehending him.

The 29-year-old then ran quickly and threw a stone at the policeman’s leg while the 25-year-old punched him on his chest. Then the 25-year-old picked up a stone and attacked the policeman.

The 25-year-old managed to free himself and run away from the injured policeman.

The two Nigerians were arrested shortly after the incident.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the duo of assaulting the policeman and injuring him.

They pleaded not guilty in court.

The 25-year-old argued in court: “I beat him but I did not know that he was a policeman when the incident happened.”

According to Wednesday’s ruling, presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the defendants will be deported after serving their punishments.

The assaulted policeman said the incident happened when he and his partners were commissioned to apprehend persons putting massage cards on windshields.

“We headed to Al Nahda where we spotted a group of African men putting massage cards on windshields … one of them tried to run away when I tried to handcuff him. He and his countryman assaulted me physically and with a stone,” he testified to prosecutors.

The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.