DUBAI // Prosecutors lost their appeal for a harsher sentence against a 20-year-old Pakistani who stabbed a countryman to death in a row over money.
The man, who was sentenced in January to three years in jail, denied a murder charge and told both criminal and appeals courts that he had acted in self-defence.
“He attacked me with the knife, which belongs to him, then I had to defend myself and he got injured during the fight,” the defendant said in court.
On July 3 last year, Dubai Police received a report of a body in a car park in Naif, after which police and forensic units were sent to the scene.
“I was parking a customer’s car when I found the body, so I rushed to my colleague and told him then he called police,” said an Afghan witness, 29.
Police identified the victim by answering his phone, which started ringing as forensic experts were examining the body.
“We answered and it turned out that his workplace was calling to inquire about him,” said an Emirati policeman. He added that police questioned the victim’s co-workers and his relatives and found out that he was last seen with the defendant.
The following morning police arrested the accused, whose right hand was bandaged.
“When we checked his hand, we found a knife wound caused by when he held the sharp end of the knife to avoid a stab,” said the officer.
During interrogations, the defendant said he had known the victim for two years and lived with him in the same flat for a while before moving about four months before the killing.
He said he was saving money with the victim and that night he called him asking for Dh200 to buy himself some new clothes to celebrate Eid Al Fitr.
“He told us that the victim told him to meet after iftar at the car park and, when they met, the victim refused to give him money and took out a knife and tried to stab him,” said the officer.
The defendant told prosecutors that he grabbed the knife’s blade, then he used it to stab the victim in his bottom and neck before fleeing.
His supervisor told prosecutors that the defendant requested his passport that day and said he needed to travel home for an emergency.
He will be deported after serving his term.
salamir@thenational.ae