3 years in jail for Dubai robbers convicted of attempted murder

Two men were found guilty of attempted murder in a botched robbery at a hardware store in Dubai.

The owner of Al Rizq Al Halal Trading Company near Naif Souq was shot by when two men attempted to rob his hardware store in Deira. Satish Kumar / The National

DUBAI // The men responsible for shooting Hussain Fakhruddin in the chest during a botched robbery at his father’s Deira hardware shop last year have been sentenced to three years in prison.

Both defendants – Iranians, A A, 28, and Q?H, 25 – were found guilty of attempted murder while A?A was also charged with possessing an illegal firearm as well as five bullets.

A?A and Q?H entered Al Rizq Al Halal Trading Company on June 19. They had followed a salesman back to the store from a nearby ATM, where he was sent to cash a cheque for Dh146,750.

After the Iranian men entered the shop, they asked a sales assistant to show them various tools. A 19-year-old salesman at the shop, M?M from India, told prosecutors that one of the defendants kept asking to see tools which he had to go to the second floor of the shop to get. “When I went upstairs for the second time, I suddenly heard a gun shot,” he said.

A?A had drawn a weapon but Mr Fakhruddin, thinking it was a toy gun, tried to resist and was shot in the chest. M?M rushed downstairs to find Mr Fakhruddin in a pool of blood. “The defendant saw me and pointed the gun at me as he was walking backwards to reach the door,” said M?M.

Police used the shop’s security camera footage to identify the men and, two days later, arrested A?A at his flat in Sharjah.

“He turned off all the lights and hid on top of one of the ACs in his residence but we caught him,” said an Emirati policeman.

As they were about to arrest him, A A drew his gun. “We shot him in the leg,” said the officer. Later that day, police arrested Q?H.

“Both willingly confessed during interrogation,” said the policeman.

During the trial at Dubai Criminal Court, both men denied the attempted murder charge. “I did not mean to kill the man and I was drunk at the time,” A A said.

After the incident, Mr Fakhruddin said it was sheer luck he survived.

Both men will be deported after their sentences.

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