Four Emiratis who stabbed and beat groom to death in brutal attack to see out life sentences

Victim was stabbed and hit with shovel

Four men who beat a man to death a month before his wedding had their life sentences upheld by Dubai Court of Appeal.

The Emiratis repeatedly stabbed and struck the 25-year-old victim, also Emirati, in a brutal 30-minute assault that involved a knife, sword and shovel.

The killing took place on March 16 last year in the Dubai suburb of Al Warqa.

The men, aged between 20 and 33, also threw acid on three others who were with the victim.

All four men were sentenced to life in jail by Dubai Criminal Court in November last year.

Dubai Appeals Court cut the sentence of a fifth defendant, a 20-year-old Emirati, and cut his prison term from 25 years to three years.

The men denied the charges during the first hearing in April 2016.

The groom was driven to hospital by one of his injured friends but was pronounced dead on arrival.

“I am certain that they had been high on drugs, because I have never seen such a brutal attack in my life," said the victim's friend, 25, who was burned when struck with a bottle containing acid.

"They kept on stabbing and hitting him for nearly half an hour."

He said the dispute began when one of the defendants insulted the victim, though exactly what was said was not detailed in court.

“Four of them then chased him and one stabbed him in the back as he ran," the friend said during the original testimony.

"He fell to the ground, then one started stabbing him with a knife, another with a sword. The third hit him repeatedly with a shovel, the last struck him on the head with a rock.

“Before he died, he smiled and told me that he knew he is going to die."

Two other friends of the victim suffered severe acid burns were admitted to intensive care at the government-run Rashid Hospital.

The victim’s father said his son had just returned from visiting his future bride, who he was due to marry in May, when the killers asked to meet in order to reconcile an old dispute.

An Emirati police officer said that a woman living close to the scene of the murder alerted police.

“She told us she heard terrible screams but was too scared to see what was happening,” said the officer, adding that a blood trail covered nearly 100 metres of road.