Worker jailed for 10 years in UAE, ordered to pay Dh200,000 blood money after roommate is killed
Both victim and accused were in an inebriated state when a fight broke out between them
Ajman: A 26-year-old Asian worker has been jailed for 10 years for assaulting his 22-year-old compatriot to death after a fight broke out between them while they were under the influence of alcohol. The Ajman Criminal Court has also ordered the accused to pay blood money of Dh200,000 to the victim’s family.
Court documents stated that the accused and the victim were involved in a fight at their accommodation on a Friday afternoon after both had consumed alcohol. When the fight broke out, the accused attacked the victim with a knife and stabbed him in the stomach.
The accused then tried to escape from the spot, but failed as he was under the influence of alcohol.
The accused was also sentenced to an extra month in jail on charges of consuming alcohol. The court has ordered to deport him after he has served his sentence, while preserving the right of the victim to claim compensation.
While the reason behind the dispute was not clear, other workers in adjacent rooms intervened to stop the fight. Once the quarrel was resolved, according to eye-witnesses, the perpetrator rushed to the kitchen. Initially, everyone thought he had gone to fetch his food, but he came back carrying a knife. Then suddenly there was a loud scream and the victim was heard crying for help to get an ambulance. As the other workers rushed inside the victim’s room, he was seen lying in a pool of blood, with part of his intestines gorged out. The victim was transported by National Ambulance to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Later, during interrogation, the accused admitted to Public Prosecution that he had deliberately killed the victim by stabbing him in the stomach with a knife until he fell on the ground. He also confessed to consuming alcohol before the murder.
Screaming for help
The first witness in the investigation told Public Prosecution that when he heard the victim scream loudly for help, asking him to call the ambulance, he rushed inside the room and saw the victim lying in a pool of blood and a knife placed on the bed. He also testified that the accused had initially tried to escape from the crime scene, though he couldn’t.
The second witness, who works as a driver with the same company where both the accused and the victim were employed, said that on the day of the incident, he was out of the accommodation when he received a call at 3pm from one of his company officials, informing him about a problem at the workers’ accommodation. Once he reached there, he found police patrols had cordoned off the place. He also said that the victim and the accused were used to drinking.
The forensic report stated that after examining the blood samples of the victim, it was found that 221 milligram/100 milligram of alcohol was found in his blood, indicating that the deceased was in a state of drunkenness close to the point that he had lost his conscious immediately before his death and that his death was due to fatal stabs in the abdomen.