Killer gang members' jail terms increased

Dubai: Ten bootleggers will each spend 10 years in jail after a court took a harder line on the nature of their crime. The defendants had earlier received two-year prison terms under a primary judgement for beating a rival gang member to death.

The Dubai Appeal Court yesterday sentenced the seven Indians, two Pakistanis and a Bangladeshi to 10 years in jail after convicting them of beating a rival gang member to death.

Prosecutors charged the 10 bootleggers, aged between 22 and 54, of the premeditated murder of A.K., an Indian following an attack with wooden bars and iron shafts.

The Dubai Court of First Instance had modified the premeditated murder charge to beating that led to death in pronouncing its verdict of two-year jail terms for each of the 10 defendants. "We kept the charge as beating which led to death… but we only toughened the punishment due to the nature of the crime," presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif told Gulf News after the judgement in courtroom 20 yesterday.

Not guilty plea

The 10 defendants pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the appellate court.

The primary court had modified the premeditated murder charge to beating which led to the death of A.K. The case before the Court of First Instance related to a clash between two bootlegging gangs over control of illicit liquor sales in a particular area.

An Emirati police first lieutenant testified that some workers found A.K.'s body at a construction site in Jumeirah Village.

"Police sniffer dogs tracked down one of the defendants [a watchman at a nearby site and who witnessed the assault] through his shoe which was left at the crime scene. The body was partially covered with sand. The watchman admitted that he and others saw the fight which happened due to rivalry between two bootlegging gangs," the first lieutenant told prosecutors.

Another police lieutenant testified that the body had been dragged some 30 metres away from where the killing took place.