Dubai: A group of nine bootleggers attacked a Dubai policeman with knives and smashed his head with a bottle of alcohol during a raid, a Dubai Court of First Instance heard on Sunday.
According to official records, Dubai Police raided an area in Dubai Investment Park in August this year to arrest three bootleggers when nine Nigerian men attacked the policeman with two knives and bottles of alcohol. The 23-year-old Emirati policeman testified that it was 11pm when they raided the area and the three bootleggers resisted the arrest, but they managed to control them and put them in a police van to transfer them to Jebel Ali Police Station for questioning.
“We were moving the van when a group of men attacked us with knives and bottles of alcohol. We tried to arrest them but they hit me on the head with a bottle of alcohol and escaped,” said the policeman on official records.
The defendants who were trading illegally in alcohol, ripped off the policeman’s uniform and caused injury to his head. He was transferred to Dubai Hospital for treatment. Dubai Police arrested all nine defendants and seized two knives that were used in the attack. The defendants had cash with them obtained from trading in alcohol.
Dubai Public Prosecution has charged the nine Nigerian defendants, all visitors, with physically assaulting a policeman on duty.
The next hearing is scheduled for later this month and the defendants will remain in police custody.
