Dubai: A European wrestler and his countryman boxer have been accused of wrecking a ceiling of an unmonitored washroom at a mall where they claimed they were fighting over an unpaid debt.
The wrestler and the boxer both told a court on Tuesday that they had agreed previously to meet and settle their dispute inside the mall’s washroom as they denied the accusation of having broken the ceiling to sneak through it to a money exchange house and steal cash.
The two men, in their 30s, were said to have entered the washroom armed with hard tools that they were believed to have used to open a hole in the ceiling, through which they had intended to crawl their way into the money exchange house and steal in December.
Prosecutors accused the suspects of damaging private property and attempted robbery.
A third Asian suspect has been charged with aiding and abetting the duo evade justice.
The wrestler and the boxer, who are both in custody, pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court and firmly refuted the accusation that they had intended to make a hole in the ceiling and trespass into the exchange house and steal.
“That’s absolutely untrue. That did not happen. We were fighting inside the washroom and the ceiling was broken by mistake,” the wrestler told the presiding judge.
“Why where you fighting and inside the washroom? And what do you mean by mistake?” the judge asked him.
“I had lent money to the other suspect’s father in our home city and I never got it back. I came here on a visit visa and when I knew that he was here in Dubai, I phoned him repeatedly and wanted to meet him to get my money. Then we decided to meet in the mall’s washroom. We had a fight and while we were pulling a bag back and forth between us, it suddenly flew in the air and hit the ceiling and broke it,” explained the wrestler.
When asked why they had decided to meet and fight in the washroom, the wrestler replied: “I am a fighter and used to this kind of situation. I had expected that settling this issue might end in a fight … so we wanted to meet in a place that was not monitored by surveillance cameras. When we fought in the washroom, the bag flew and hit the ceiling.”
The presiding judge then asked: “What was inside the bag that made it break the ceiling?”
The wrestler explained that his friends had asked him to buy them some hard tools used in garages to fix cars.
“I had kept some hard tools in the bag and that was what made the bag heavy and caused a hole in the ceiling,” he contended.
When the judge asked the suspects why they ran away when the cleaner entered the washroom, the wrestler and the boxer claimed that they did not want to be fined or asked to pay for the broken ceiling.
“Didn’t you break a hole in the ceiling to sneak into the exchange house to steal?” the judge asked.
The suspects denied this and claimed that they had no intent to steal.
Meanwhile when asked about the Asian suspect’s role and what assistance he provided them, the wrestler claimed: “He did not do anything … he just issued the tickets for me. I was detained at the airport the next day at 10am. We are sorry, Sir, and we did not intend to do any harm and break the ceiling.”
The presiding judge adjourned the case until the Asian suspect is legally notified about the upcoming hearing.
