DUBAI // A cook drowned a colleague at Jumeirah open beach after the two had been drinking heavily.
The colleague had high levels of alcohol in his bloodstream and there were no signs of assault, so his drowning appeared to be an accident.
But another colleague confided in a friend that he saw the Kenyan cook, 30, repeatedly push the man’s head under the water.
The incident happened on January 22, when the cook was at the beach with two men, aged 25 and 30, and the victim – all from Kenya and all working at the same restaurant.
Police investigations showed that the defendant and the deceased went for a swim and, shortly afterwards, the cook came back alone.
“When the others asked him about the victim, he said he didn’t know, took his belongings then left,” said an Emirati policeman, 28
The death report listed drowning the cause and the medical report that he may have lost control while at sea, and the killer would have walked free if the colleague had not told his friend about it.
“After the man told me about what he saw I told the restaurant owner that this was a murder,” said another Kenyan cook, 26.
The Italian restaurant owner, 54, told prosecutors that he found out about the killing the day after it happened.
The owner said: “I told him to make sure, so he started asking around and he was told that the victim was not alone at sea and that he was drowned deliberately by one of his friends, so we went to the police station and reported the matter.”
The first cook denied killing his compatriot, saying that he was playing with him when he pushed his head under water. but he did not kill him.
The two others present at the beach were charged with aiding and abetting for being aware of the crime and failing to alert authorities, while the cook was also charged with drinking alcohol without a licence.
One of the two co-accused appeared in court in June and denied aiding and abetting while the other failed to show up.
On Wednesday morning the killer was sentenced to 10 years in jail to be followed by deportation, while the other two were fined Dh1,000 each for failing to report the incident.
salamir@thenational.ae
