Dubai: A worker who threatened to kill a family by blowing them up with a gas cylinder that he stole from a restaurant has been jailed for six months.
The 26-year-old Chinese worker, B.O., broke the metal cage where a Pakistani restaurant owner had placed the gas cylinder. Then he took the cylinder to the flat of a Chinese family and placed it on their doorstep before threatening to burn them if they asked him to repay them the money he had borrowed.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted B.O. of threatening to kill the Chinese family.
The accused had entered a not guilty plea and claimed he did not have any criminal intention.
The accused had borrowed money from the son of a Chinese woman before he threatened to kill her and her family by setting them on fire in January.
Records said B.O. stole the gas cylinder and verbally threatened to kill the Chinese family that lives in Dubai International City.
Presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat said the accused will be deported after serving his punishment.
A Chinese saleswoman said the incident took place around 1.30am when the defendant knocked on their door.
“When my nephew answered the door, we saw a gas cylinder on the doorstep. A few minutes later the defendant came and shouted, ‘I put the cylinder there… I will burn you all with that cylinder if you ever ask me to pay back the money that I borrowed from your son’. I immediately called the police who rushed to the building and arrested B.O.,” she claimed.
The Pakistani restaurant owner said one of his workers informed him over the phone that the cylinder had been stolen.
“The worker called me around 3am … when I reached the restaurant I saw the defendant in police custody. Police officers said B.O. had broken the lock of the cage and stolen the cylinder to threaten the family,” he claimed.
The saleswoman’s sister testified that her sister notified her over the phone that B.O. had come to their flat and threatened to burn them all using the cylinder.
Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
