Salesman must see out jail term for starting fire at a Dubai mall

A salesman jailed for three months for starting a fire in the BurJuman mall must see out his sentence, the Court of Appeal ruled.

DUBAI // A salesman jailed for three months after being convicted of starting a fire in the BurJuman mall in October must see out his sentence, the Court of Appeal ruled.

Dubai Criminal Court locked up Filipino E R, 43, in January after hearing how he set fire to cardboard boxes in the shop where he worked after being denied a transfer to a branch in Jebel Ali.

M K, the head of security at the Carrefour supermarket where E R’s company rented a shop, told the court at a previous hearing: “If we were seconds later, E R could have killed many people, burnt the whole place down or caused a massive explosion because there were many flammable materials, such as cleaning liquids and perfumes in the store where he started the fire.”

M K, from Pakistan, said he received a call informing him of the fire, but it had been extinguished by the time he arrived.

“I went back to the camera recording and saw that E R went into the store, remained there for about five minutes then got out. Just after he left, in walked the other employees who immediately ran out saying there was a fire,” M K said.

M K said when he asked E R about the fire “he confessed without any kind of force or pressure”.

E R denied starting the fire deliberately.

“It happened by mistake, I did not mean to do it,” he told judges.

He will be deported after completing his jail term.​