ABU DHABI // One of four brothers accused of killing two men in a revenge attack can remember firing warning shots, but lost consciousness soon after, a court has heard.
The Emiratis are accused of shooting the Omani men after ramming into their car in Al Jimi, Al Ain, on May 4.
The court has heard that one of the dead men had a brother who was found guilty of murdering a man in August 2009.
The victim in that murder was another brother of the four Emiratis. They pleaded not guilty in the Criminal Court yesterday.
Another two men related to the brothers, HM and HJ, are accused of helping them to escape justice. HJ is also accused of murder, which he has denied, saying he was working in Abu Dhabi at the time.
One of the brothers, HT, said that he was sick and taking strong painkillers when he was driving his car in Al Jimi on the day of the killings. He said he became dizzy and lost his vision, causing him to crash into the Omanis' car.
HT said he was the only one of the brothers in the car at the time. He said one of the two Omanis attacked him before being joined by the second Omani.
"I got scared because he was bigger than me, so I took a weapon that I kept in my car, which I got as a gift from a friend, and shot at the ground, not at the two," he said. "Then I got dizzy again and lost consciousness of what I was doing."
He said that when he regained consciousness he went to the house of one of his brothers in Al Ain to return a mobile phone and drove back to Dubai - a journey he made every Friday.
He said he slept at a hotel in Dubai before returning to Al Ain, to HM's house. There he met HJ, who he said offered to bury the weapon.
On Sunday HT went back to work and was arrested.
Asked why the fingerprints of one of his brothers was on the gun, he said his brother had once found the gun in his car and had threatened to report him to the police.
Two of the brothers, MT and MN, said they were at their parent's house at the time of the killings and prayed at the local mosque.
They said they were unaware of the killings until they were arrested.
HJ denied offering to bury the gun, saying he was visiting HM at the time to invite him to a family wedding.
HM, accused of housing a fugitive and not reporting a crime, said he saw HJ take a green bag from HT's car but did not know what was in it.
He denied housing a fugitive, saying HT was his relative and obviously he would welcome him when he visited.
The defence lawyer Nashwa Al Kubaissy asked for HT to be examined by a psychiatrist and presented medical reports showing he had received treatment in the past for mental problems, in centres in the UAE and abroad.
She also requested a report from Etisalat on the brothers' phone calls on the day of the killings, and a traffic police report on the movement of their cars.
The court adjourned the case until September 9.