Dubai: A security guard has been accused of beating two policemen when they tried to apprehend him for bootlegging behind a mosque in Dubai, a court heard on Sunday.
A police patrol spotted three men engaged in clandestine activity in a parking lot behind a mosque in Freij Al Murar and suspected them to be engaged in bootlegging.
Police continued to monitor the African trio for two consecutive days and, when they had ascertained that the latter were indeed selling liquor illegally, they sent officers to the spot to apprehend the suspects.
Records stated that when the trio, who turned out to be Nigerians, saw two policemen approaching them, two of them fled the scene but the 30-year-old security guard failed to make a getaway. When the policemen tried to handcuff him, he resisted arrest and beat the two policemen.
Records said the guard was finally retrained and taken into custody.
Prosecutors accused the suspect of beating two policemen and possessing 37 cans of beer.
According to the charges sheet, the security guard had kept the contraband in his possession to be handed over to his accomplices.
The suspect pleaded not guilty before before presiding judge Shaikha Hamad in the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
One of the assaulted policemen told prosecutors: “We watched the trio for two days and when we made sure that they had been bootlegging behind the mosque, we raided the area. Two of them ran away quickly and the third resisted arrest. He beat us and tried to run away but we foiled his attempt and handcuffed him.”
A ruling will be heard on July 10.
