Best friend killer’s jail term stiffened to 15 years

Dubai: A student, who killed his best friend with a scissor, had his seven-year imprisonment lengthened to 15 years in jail after he lost his appeal on Sunday.

The 26-year-old Pakistani defendant stabbed his Emirati best friend with a pair of scissors in his neck and killed him following a heated argument at the latter’s residence in August 2017.

The Emirati victim had invited a countryman friend and the accused at his residence for a stay-over.

In the afternoon, the Emirati was heard shouting the student’s name before he was seen by the housemaid bleeding from his neck.

The Filipina maid instantly ran to the room of the Emirati’s uncle and told him what she had seen and then hid in her room.

Police inspections revealed that the Emirati had been stabbed with a pair of scissors in his neck and succumbed to the injuries.

In July, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the 26-year-old accused to seven years in jail.

The defendant appealed his primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to have a lenient punishment. Meanwhile prosecutors also appealed to have the punishment stiffened. On Sunday, presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif dismissed the appeal of the defendant and accepted that of prosecutors.

“The accused will spend 15 years behind prison bars. The murder weapon [scissor] will be confiscated,” said presiding judge Al Sharif.

The accused, who pleaded not guilty, will be deported after serving his punishment.

The defendant’s lawyer argued before the appellate court that his client didn’t intend to kill ‘his best friend’.

“The two had a heated argument that turned into a fight. The accused did not have any intent or motive to kill the victim,” argued the lawyer who asked the court to modify the murder charge to fatal assault.

The maid said the victim had hosted his friends from 1am till the next day when the countryman left while the accused stayed over.

“In the afternoon, I finished some chores and went to sleep. When I woke up, the defendant was still there even as the victim asked me to prepare his bag to go to the gym. The victim and his friend were together and I heard the deceased shouting the defendant’s name suddenly. When I looked through the window, I saw the victim bleeding from his neck but I didn’t see how he got stabbed in his neck,” she testified.

A police lieutenant said the accused was apprehended two days following the incident.

“During questioning, the defendant claimed that the deceased had invited them over to his villa to drink alcohol and then started asking them strange questions. The accused purported that the deceased asked his countryman friend to have a fight with him but the latter refused and left. According to the defendant’s claims, the victim then turned to him and told him he wanted to fight him. The 26-year-old claimed that he grabbed the scissor and waved it in front of the victim to frighten him and fend him away but mistakenly hit his neck. Crime scene investigators concluded that the on-site inspection didn’t match with the defendant’s description of what had happened. Primary interrogations revealed that the defendant and the victim had a heated argument and fought. An injury was noticed on the culprit’s leg,” he testified.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court.