Dubai: A British inmate has gone on trial for physically assaulting two wardens and damaging public properties at a detention centre, a Dubai Court of First Instance heard.
The defendant, 29, identified as J.G., was charged with assaulting two policemen and breaking the glass of the fire alarm, which cost Dh1,338 to repair, damaging a landline phone and a policewoman’s mobile phone.
According to official records, on February 6, the defendant told wardens that he has breathing difficulties. They took him outside the cell to the corridor, at the detention centre of the Anti-Narcotics Department at the Dubai Police headquarters.
A team of doctors examined the defendant and stated he was fine. When two wardens tried to take him back to his cell, he punched the alarm system button and headed to the emergency exit.
An Emirati policeman, 22, testified that he blocked the corridor and the defendant entered another room, where a policewoman was seated. “He grabbed her mobile phone and smashed it on the floor and then broke the landline phone on the desk. He resisted arrest and injured me as he pushed me away. We kept asking him to calm down, until we could control him,” the Emirati policeman said in official records.
The two policemen tied his hands but he kept pushing them away. Both sustained minor injuries and bruises.
The defendant denied all charges but confessed to breaking the fire alarm glass.
A verdict will be issued on September 20.
