Dubai: A porter, who killed his friend after the latter refused to give him Dh200 to buy new clothes, will have to serve only a three-year jail term as a court rejected the prosecution’s appeal to stiffen the punishment.
The 20-year-old Pakistani porter had been saving money with his countryman but when the latter did not give him Dh200 out of the Dh7,000 he had saved with him, he attacked him at a parking lot in July 2016.
The parking’s Afghan attendant found the victim and reported it to the police.
In January, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of killing the victim, whom he had stabbed in his neck and posterior.
Dubai prosecutors appealed the primary judgement and asked the Dubai Appeal Court to stiffen the imprisonment of the defendant, who had pleaded not guilty.
When he defended himself up before the Appeal Court, the defendant pleaded not guilty citing self-defence.
“I had no intention to kill him … he is the one who attacked me and I defended myself. We met in the parking and he took out a knife and tried to stab me first. I was defending myself when the knife hit him and he dropped dead,” he contended in court.
Presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif rejected the prosecutors’ appeal and upheld the primary ruling [three years in jail].
According to the appellate judgement, the accused was handed a lenient punishment due to his young age [under 21].
The accused will be deported after serving his jail term.
The Afghan attendant said he was parking a client’s vehicle when he spotted the victim on the ground.
“Initially, I thought he was sleeping … I flashed the high beam and sounded the horn but he remained motionless. I walked towards him and noticed that there was a pool of blood under him … blood covered his clothes as well. I called the police instantly,” he testified.
A police lieutenant said police interrogated the victim’s relatives and friends but they could give any leads.
“Further investigation revealed that the defendant had asked his supervisor at work to give him his passport urgently … thereafter we suspected that he must have been connected to the murder. The supervisor cooperated with us and arranged to meet the defendant, who was apprehended in Naif. During questioning, the defendant said he had saved up to Dh7,000 with the victim, who was his roommate. He claimed that on the day the incident happened, he met the victim to take Dh200 from him to buy new clothes as he wanted to celebrate Eid Al Fitr. The accused said the deceased refused to give him the money and they had a heated argument. The victim took out a knife that he had hidden under his clothes and tried to stab him. He alleged that he evaded the knife but sustained a cut in his hand … then he snatched the knife from the victim and stabbed him back in self-defence,” the lieutenant said.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 25 days.
