2 juveniles, 3 adults charged with assaulting goalkeeper

They are accused of attacking him with blades after he tried to intervene in a cinema seating dispute in Dubai.

DUBAI // Two boys and three men have been referred to court in the knife attack on Baniyas Football Club goalkeeper Mohammad Ali Ghuloom, officials said today.

The five males are accused of attacking Ghuloom in the parking lot of Dubai's Mirdiff City Centre last month, after he intervened to stop them from attacking another man at the mall's cinema.

According to Chief Prosecutor Mohammed Rustom of the Family and Juvenile Prosecutors Office, two of the assailants were juveniles and have been referred to the Dubai Juvenile Criminal Court of First Instance to face armed assault charges.

The three men, SH, MH and AA, all Emiratis have been referred to the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours to face the same charges.

"We have issued a number of arrest warrants for the remaining suspects, and we expect them to be detained and arrested soon," Mr Rustom said. "We do not take blade crimes lightly, as we have been ordered by the Dubai Attorney General to focus on prosecuting these crimes toughly to reduce these incidents between youth."

According to the Deputy Chief Family and Juvenile Prosecutor Shihab Ahmed, who investigated the claims, the incident occurred in the middle of November, when Ghuloom tried to stop an argument over cinema seating between a man from an unnamed Arab country and SH.

After the film finished, the defendants waited for both Ghuloom and the Arab man at the mall's entrance and attacked them with knives and a sword.

Neither Ghuloom nor the Arab man suffered serious injuries.

Mr Rustom called on the authorities to expedite the new "cold weapons" law drafted this year.

"We need this law to be put in place to regulate the ownership of knives and swords under the law and stop this phenomena from expanding and further endangering the public," he said.