Dubai: A visitor has been jailed for 10 years for killing his friend by grabbing his neck and pushing him underwater in the sea while they were at the Dubai Open Beach.
The 30-year-okd Kenyan visitor grabbed his countryman friend while they were swimming together in the sea and intentionally drowned him until he stopped breathing in January.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 30-year-old defendant of drinking alcohol and premeditatedly murdering the victim by drowning him.
Meanwhile, his two countrymen, a 31-year-old and a 25-year-old, were fined Dh1,000 each for failing to report the murder to the police.
When he defended himself in court, the 30-year-old defendant had pleaded not guilty and denied drowning the victim.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the 30-year-old murder convict will be deported following the completion of his jail term.
The other two suspects pleaded innocent.
A police lieutenant testified that the incident was initially treated as a drowning incident before the victim’s boss informed them otherwise.
“The deceased’s boss contacted the police and informed us that a witness had claimed to him that the victim did not die normally. We contacted the victim’s relative, who told us that the victim and his friends [the three defendants] and three others were present at the beach on that day. We questioned them all and they denied any involvement in the victim’s death. Meanwhile, a witness claimed during questioning that the 25-year-old admitted to him that the 30-year-old had drowned the victim when they were in the water together. The witness said the 30-year-old defendant ran away from the beach when his friends asked him about the victim … but they chased him and brought him back to the beach. Then police and ambulance cars arrived. Primary interrogations revealed that the murder convict and the victim had had differences before the incident. A witness claimed that he had overheard the 30-year-old threatening to harm the victim.
“We summoned the 30-year-old who admitted that he pushed the victim’s head under the water but he had been joking. He claimed that when the deceased did not react, he felt scared and rushed out of the water and ran away. Later he said he had previously threatened to kill the victim when he was angry,” said the lieutenant.
Dubai Police’s forensic examiner testified that the victim could have drowned easily since he was drunk.
Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
