Dubai: A 23-year-old man has been jailed for six months for assaulting two others with a sword after he suspected them of hurling peanuts at him in a pub.
The man, who does not carry personal identification documents, assaulted the Emirati clubbers outside the pub after he suspected that they had tossed peanuts at his table in June 2013.
Driven by anger, the 23-year-old asked the Emirati men to meet him outside the hotel to settle the matter between them although they had denied tossing peanuts at him or his companions in the pub.
In August, the Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the defendant in absentia to a year in jail.
The accused turned himself in and requested a retrial during which he pleaded not guilty.
On Monday, presiding judge Urfan Omar convicted the defendant of assault and commuted the imprisonment to six months in jail.
The accused caused a 10 per cent permanent disability to one man and injured the other, said records.
The 39-year-old Emirati, who was permanently disabled following the attack, said he was with friends at the pub when the accused turned towards their table.
“He asked if we had tossed peanuts at him and his friends but we denied. Then he walked towards our table and asked to meet him outside to settle the dispute. When we stood outside, I informed him that we did not throw anything at him. A fight took place outside the pub and I was stabbed with a sword … I sustained a wound in my chest. My friend [the other victim] was also injured. The attackers then ran away … later we were summoned to the police station where we identified the defendant and confirmed to the police that he had attacked us with the sword,” he testified.
An Indian friend said he was clubbing at the pub with his two friends [the victims] when the incident happened.
“Shortly after the misunderstanding happened inside the pub, everybody moved outside. I chased my friends outside … five men dragged swords and knives out from their cars, attacked my friends and injured them,” he stated.
Available records did not mention the reason why the case was referred to court in 2016 despite the fact that the incident had happened in 2013.
Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal 15 days.
