Dubai A jobless Emirati who claimed he was HIV-positive is in the dock for threatening to set police officers on fire.
The incident took place around 7.30am on May 5.
The police officers had arrived at the house of the 47-year-old Emirati man following a complaint from a Filipino.
But before they could enter the house, the man rushed out holding a lighter against a leaking gas cylinder.
He threatened the police officers that he would set them on fire if they tried to come near him, a Dubai court heard on Wednesday.
The officers said they tried to restrain the man who they claimed seemed to be under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.
A Filipino man had called the police claiming the Emirati had approached him posing as a police officer.
He said the Emirati asked him to follow him to the police station but instead took him to his house and attempted to rape him. However, the Filipino managed to run away and narrated his story to some police officers patrolling the area.
Given the situation, the police called for more officers. When the reinforcement team arrived, the officers overpowered the man but in a bizarre twist, as he was being held down, he shouted that he was HIV-positive and suffering from a virulent form of hepatitis.
The cops were forced to keep their distance from the man and called for the quarantine team.
When the quarantine patrol was delayed, the police asked the suspect to go back to his house and took the Filipino to file a complaint at Bur Dubai Police Station.
At around 12:30pm the patrol team got a call alerting them about a man found lying face down at a restaurant.
When the police arrived, they found it was the same man who had threatened him in the morning.
An ambulance was called and the man was sent to the hospital. He did not attend the first court hearing on Wednesday. The next hearing is set for October 3.
