DUBAI // A labourer who knifed his sleeping roommate over Dh2,000 will now serve double his five-year jail term.
Dubai Court of Appeal on Tuesday increased the Bangladeshi’s sentence and ordered his deportation afterwards.
The 27-year-old tried to kill a 30-year-old countryman, a tailor who owed the money, inside labour accommodation in Bur Dubai on the morning of August 29 last year.
Prosecutors said he bought a knife, hid it and waited until the victim slept. He stabbed him repeatedly until his intestines spilled out.
At Dubai Criminal Court in February he confessed but told judges that he did not intend to kill the man.
“We had a heated argument and I stabbed him. I never had any intention to kill him,” said the labourer.
He was sentenced to five years in jail to be followed by deportation but prosecutors appealed, seeking a harsher punishment, and the appeals court obliged.
The victim said no argument took place and that he was woken by the knife attack.
“He wanted to kill me, he made sure that I was asleep and all the other workers in the room were asleep too,” added the victim, whose life was saved through two operations.
A Bangladeshi cook said he woke up to the screams of the victim. “He fell from his bed to the floor while bleeding,” said the roommate, who called police.
He added that the defendant was sitting on his bed and kept silent until police arrived.
“He told me he bought the knife from a nearby shop,” said a policeman.
salamir@thenational.ae
