DUBAI // An inmate at the central prison allegedly set fire to his cell, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.
Emirati AA, 43, denied starting the fire and endangering the lives of others.
”How can I light a fire when we are not allowed to have matches, I didn’t do it,” AA told the presiding judge.
Prosecutors said that on November 19 last year, the fire alarm was triggered in the central prison’s solitary confinement section. Officers saw the defendant smoking a cigarette and a white cloth burning in front of his cell.
“At 6.20pm we heard the fire alarm sirens and I rushed towards the inmate’s cell,” Emirati police officer AM, 50, told prosecutors. “Officers who reached before me put out the fire using their boots.
“He told us that he did it because he had some private requests that he wanted to tell us and that he lit the cloth to draw our attention,” said AM.
The next hearing is set for May 24.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
