Man set fire to wife's clothes in drunken rage

Dubai: A man has been given a three-month suspended jail term after a court found him guilty of endangering his family's life after he set part of his Karama flat on fire during a drunken rage.

After his wife waived her complaint against her 50-year-old Indian husband, V.V., the Dubai Court of First Instance gave him a lenient sentence. However, Presiding Judge Abdul Majid Al Nezamy gave him a four-year prison term for possessing 0.61 grams of hashish for personal use. V.V., will later be deported.

Records said his 33-year-old compatriot wife claimed her husband endangered the lives of her and her children when he set fire to her wardrobe. She claimed to have locked herself and her children in the bathroom for more than two hours to escape her "heavily inebriated husband's assaults" before they smelt smoke.

His wife, J.O., said in her statement she constantly quarrelled with V.V. whom she accused of being an alcoholic.

"One Friday he beat me more than usual because he was heavily drunk... I locked myself with my children in the washroom and waited for him to fall asleep. Suddenly, he banged on the door and warned that he would set my clothes ablaze."

Shortly after his wife alleged her husband took drugs and drank liquor, a policeman said.