Dubai: Two men have been jailed for three months for indulging in a group fight using knives and assaulting three holidaymakers in a street following a heated argument in a supermarket.
One of the Saudi holidaymakers went to the supermarket in Al Rigga Street to purchase some goods where he was assaulted by the three men — two Emiratis and one from Comoros Islands — after a heated argument in October 2014.
The three culprits assaulted the Saudi man with a knife but he escaped to his hotel room.
When he reached his hotel room bloodied from head to toe, he told his brother and their friend about the incident in the supermarket and the assault thereafter.
Then the two Saudi brothers and their friend went down, they spotted the assailants across the street carrying knives.
The three assailants crossed the street and attacked the Saudis violently.
One of the Saudis grabbed a plastic street cone to fend off the attackers. Pedestrians and onlookers also intervened to stop the assailants while the hotel staff informed police about the attack.
Shortly after that, police arrived and arrested two of the bloodied assailants who were trying to flee from the scene in a car. The third man was arrested later and the trio was referred to the Public Prosecution.
During the time the case was still being investigated by prosecutors, one of the Emirati assailants passed away.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the other 26-year-old Emirati and the 33-year-old man from Comoros Islands, of assaulting the Saudi trio with sharp tools and causing one of them a 15 per cent permanent disability in his left arm.
The Emirati suspect missed his trial.
The 33-year-old defendant pleaded innocent and told the court that he was not involved in the attack.
“The Emirati suspect, who had died, was the one who stabbed the Saudis,” he said.
One of the Saudi brothers testified that he was hit in his head with a metal object in the supermarket by one of the suspects.
“I do not know why he pushed me … but when I turned around and asked him, he hurled a metal object on my head. I returned to my hotel room because I got injured,” he told prosecutors.
The Saudis went down to check out why the defendants had assaulted one of them for no reason before they were attacked.
A policeman said the defendants seemed to be under the influence of drugs when they arrested them near the hotel.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 13 days.
