Dubai: Two Emirati brothers who resisted arrest and assaulted two policemen when being handcuffed after a group fight, were handed a suspended jail term on Thursday

A police patrol was dispatched to Shaikh Zayed Road after a security guard reported to the Dubai Police’s operations room about a group fight which took place behind a hotel, in June.

The Filipina security guard told the police that some people were involved in a fight on the service road next to the hotel, and a policemen checked the CCTV cameras.

The men then drove away in three cars, before the two policemen stopped one of the identified cars outside, and asked the driver [one of the brothers] for the registration and driver’s licence.

The Emirati man, 21, refused to give his papers to the policeman, and his brother, 28, stepped out of the vehicle and confronted the policeman.

The older brother tried to prevent the policeman from checking his brother’s papers and told him that he didn’t have the right to ask for papers, since they hadn’t committed any crime.

Refusing to comply with the policeman, the brothers resisted arrest and assaulted the policeman when they were being handcuffed.

On Thursday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Emirati brothers of resisting arrest and assaulting the policemen.

Citing grounds of leniency, presiding judge Habib Awad handed the brothers a three-month suspended jail term.

When they appeared in court, the duo accused pleaded not guilty.

“We did not do anything illegal. The policeman handcuffed us and kept us restrained in the police car for 90 minutes. We did not know what our mistake was. We were apprehended without reason and detained two weeks for doing nothing. He also pointed his gun at my brother. Prosecutors asked us to obtain a waiver from the policemen to release us on bail. We were told that the case would be dropped after we had obtained the waiver,” argued the 28-year-old brother in court.

The policeman said the incident happened when he asked one of the suspects to show his papers. “They refused and assaulted my partner and I. There were four suspects and I had to take out my pistol to keep them afar when they surrounded me. We called for backup after we handcuffed the brothers and put them in the police car. There was a woman high on drugs and others who were drunk among those who had been fighting,” he said.

The ruling remains subject to appeal.