DUBAI // One of six men convicted of assaulting a man with meat cleavers, swords and knives in a gang attack has won his appeal and will be freed.
Emirati E M, 22, will walk free after Dubai Court of Appeal overturned the criminal court’s ruling that he was involved in the attack, which left the victim with a five per cent permanent disability.
At the criminal court in January last year, brothers A E, 31, and W E, 36, who hold Comoros Islands passports, were sentenced to a year in prison each to be followed by deportation. Emiratis A H, 26, and E M were each given a year in prison while countrymen M D, 20, and 19-year-old W H were both jailed for six months.
They were all found guilty of assaulting 21-year-old Emirati M E on April 19, 2012, though the case was only referred to court last year.
Records said that on the night in question the six men stepped out of a car near the victim’s friend’s house.
M E saw them coming armed with sharp tools and tried to escape but they caught him and started hitting him with the weapons all over his body.
A number of nearby women saw the attack and started screaming to draw attention.
The defendants then returned to their car but A H went back and inflicted one last blow to M E’s right knee, which caused him the 5 per cent permanent disability.
On June 29 the same year, the gang who attacked M E were set upon themselves in a revenge attack, which led to the brother of A E and W E being run over and killed by M E’s friends.
salamir@thenational.ae
