Life in jail for policeman who shot colleague dead

DUBAI // A policeman who shot and killed a fellow officer was jailed for life yesterday.

The 26-year-old Yemeni patrol sergeant said he shot the victim, 53, because he had been sexually assaulted by him. Dubai Criminal Court had heard that on November 8 last year, the officer started his shift and went to pick up his gun, bullets and handcuffs from his colleague, who worked as an armoury officer at Al Raffa Police Station.

He then fired his gun three times at the victim’s head, killing him instantly, before surrendering himself to the police station’s commanding officer.

A witness, a 51-year-old officer, said he saw the killer stand behind the victim and say: “When you and that other man came to my residence, what did you do to me?” He said he could not believe what he was seeing.

“I didn’t think it was serious, I thought they were joking,” the witness said.

The commander told the court that the defendant came to him shortly after the shooting. “He told me he was surrendering himself for killing his colleague so that legal action could be taken against him. He then handed me his weapon,” he said.

He said he asked the killer why he had shot his colleague and he replied that the victim and another man had sexually assaulted him 15 days earlier.

“He told me that the armoury officer had gagged him with a cloth with some chemical on it, which made him lose consciousness,” the commander said. “When he woke up, he figured out that he had been raped.”

A medical examination concluded that the defendant was sane and responsible for his actions but found that he suffered from paranoia after being raped in 2008. The defendant will be deported after completing his sentence.