DUBAI // A cook whose drunken, unprovoked attack left a man in a coma for six days was this morning sentenced to a year in prison.
The attack by Filipino RS, 27, left his 41-year-old compatriot unconscious and bleeding internally. While the injured man has since regained consciousness his hearing and memory have been permanently impaired.
The man was playing basketball with a salesman friend in Satwa at about 2am on July 15 last year when the cook and another drunk approached and assaulted him.
The assailants punched the man to the floor before hitting him with what the man identified as a "solid tool".
"I felt the blood slipping down from my head and then fell unconscious," the man told the criminal court. He said he knew neither of the men and had no idea why they assaulted him.
After the cook and his friend fled the scene the injured man was rushed to the Iranian Hospital and his sister lodged a complaint with the police.
Officers tracked the cook with the help of the salesman who witnessed the attack.
The cook will be deported after completing his jail term.
[ salamir@thenational.ae ]
