Dubai: A student who attacked two employees with a sword and chopped off their fingers in a road rage incident on Al Maktoum Street has been jailed for a year.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 20-year-old Emirati student of attacking three Pakistani employees after he blocked their way at a traffic signal in June.

Presiding judge Urfan Omar sentenced the accused in absentia.

The defendant jumped out of his sports utility vehicle and attacked the Pakistani trio with a sword in the middle of the street. Two Pakistanis lost one finger each while attempting to dodge the sword attacks and avoid being killed.

After the incident, the Emirati walked into a police station and claimed that he had been attacked at the traffic signal and hurt.

The policeman told the accused to go to the hospital and get a medical report to pursue legal action against his assailants.

The Emirati went to the hospital but never returned to the police station.

Dubai Police’s operation room was notified that a man [accused] had attacked three men and two of them were seriously injured and had lost their fingers.

One employee had a left-hand finger chopped off, while another had a right-hand finger chopped off and two other fingers partly severed, showed records.

A 24-year-old victim testified that he was driving his vehicle on the proper lane when the accused tossed a cigarette into his car.

“The student drove his car parallel to my vehicle and tossed a cigarette in … I did not react because it was obvious that he was picking on us and trying to provoke us into fighting with him. When we reached the traffic signal, he suddenly swerved his car towards my lane and slammed the brakes. He and two others from their car got out and attacked us without any provocation. The student then took out a sword and attacked me … I lost a finger when I tried to defend myself,” he said.

A 27-year-old employee [who was also attacked] said when the passengers of the other car tried to chase them [Pakistani trio], they ran away. “We ran away and hid for nearly two minutes until the assailants left. When we returned to our car, we found the chopped fingers on the ground. We called the police and we were rushed to the hospital,” he testified.

A policeman said when he questioned the student about what had happened, the accused claimed that the trio attacked him first and tried to stab him with a knife. “He claimed that he took the knife away from them and defended himself. He gave contradicting statements,” said the policeman.