Jobless Dubai labourer who stabbed victim 12 times says it was 'self defence'

Defendant claims he was protecting himself

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An unemployed labourer who stabbed a man 12 times has denied that he intended to kill the victim, claiming that he was acting in self defence after the latter went for him first and broke his arm.

“I was defending myself. He attacked me and threw me out of the first floor of the accommodation, breaking my left arm,” the 23-year-old Indian defendant said at Dubai Criminal Court on Monday.

On the morning of September 21 this year, police were called after workers at a labour accommodation in Al Quoz Industrial Area 2 found the victim in a pool of blood and saw the defendant running away.

“It was 8.00am when I heard a noise. My room is in the ground floor so I looked up to where the noise was coming from and saw the victim carrying a broomstick while chasing the defendant", testified a Pakistani driver, 32.

"Then, when they came to the ground floor, I saw blood on the victim’s shirt,”

He said he called for an ambulance, but the victim, also Indian, died on the way to Rashid Hospital, court records stated.

The accommodation’s Cameroonian supervisor, 30, told prosecutors that he also heard noise and on inspection found workers looking down at the ground floor and saying that a colleague had been stabbed.

“Someone was screaming. I rushed to the source of the screams and saw the victim lying on his back and bleeding heavily," said the supervisor, who managed to restrain the suspect until police arrived.

"He was shaking his head and moving his eyes, but couldn't speak. Then I spotted the defendant trying to climb the fence to run away so I called the police and chased him."

“I also found the knife he used to stab the victim. I did not touch it, just covered it with plastic until police arrived,” he said.

He pointed out that the defendant had cancelled his visa with the company and was supposed to fly back to his home country the same day the alleged murder took place.

The court records did not elaborate on reasons for the alleged stabbing, but a medical report stated that the victim suffered from 12 stab wounds in the face, neck, chest and back.

“The nature of the stab wounds indicate that they were intended to kill,” the prosecutor's report said.

The next hearing will be on December 21.