Man jailed for life for killing his colleague

dubai — An ironsmith, charged with murdering a colleague because of the latter’s alleged sexual harassment, was sentenced to life in prison by a Dubai court on Wednesday.

The Pakistani man, yet to complete 21 years of age, was accused of stabbing the Indian victim twice in the chest and waist on May 9. He claimed he stabbed the victim after the latter made sexual advances towards him.

Prosecutors accused him of premeditatedly murdering the victim and attempting to kill another worker.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted him of the charges and ordered his deportation after he served 25 years in jail. The accused and the second victim, a 25-year-old Indian blacksmith, were referred to the Court of Misdemeanors on the charge of consuming alcohol without a licence.

On the day of the incident, the accused went berserk after what he claimed was a sexual harassment by the deceased on the stairs of their accommodation.

He went to his room and brought a knife. He came back to the victim and stabbed him twice. The first stab was deep in the chest. Intending to finish him off, he stabbed him again in the waist.

At the same place, he also tried to kill the other man, stabbing him twice with the same knife. The latter managed to get out of the defendant’s way and was rushed to hospital where he underwent life-saving surgeries.

The second victim said that he did not know the accused prior to the day. “I was under the influence of alcohol when he stabbed me down my back and in my thigh. I was able to reach my room and seek help.”

A policeman said at 1.30am on May 10, they were alerted about a murder at a contracting company’s worker accommodation in Al Quoz industrial area. “The information was that there was also an injured person. The victim was lying with his face down and blood all around him. The Egyptian security guard revealed the name of the suspect. As we circulated his descriptions, we were tipped-off that he was hiding behind a mosque in the same area. We arrested him at 2.15am.”

The defendant admitted then to killing the victim. He said he had consumed beer earlier. He claimed that he saw the victim and another Indian man on the stairs. “I asked them to make way for me but then the victim grabbed me by the thigh in a sexually provocative way. He did it again inviting me to sit down with them,” the accused told the cops.

The defendant then lost his temper, went directly to his room and brought a knife. “I went back to them and the victim invited me again to hang out with them. When I asked him why he was calling me, he touched me again. I then took out the knife and stabbed the first man in the chest and his companion in the back as they tried to escape,” the defendant confessed to the police. The forensic report showed the cause of death was deep cuts causing severe internal bleeding. The ironsmith can appeal the ruling within 15 days.