Jobless man jailed for beating detective

DUBAI: An unemployed man who threw a punch in a sergeant’s face during a street chase has failed to convince a jury to clear him.

The Asian man, 35, engaged the Emirati sergeant, 29, in a scuffle as the latter tried to pin him down. He posed fierce resistance and punched him in the face, according to records at the Bur Dubai Police Station.

He denied the charge during court questioning and argued that the cop was rather the one who beat him. “Look at my eye. This scar resulted from the assault,” he explained to the Dubai Criminal Court’s jury.

The court found him guilty and sentenced him to six months behind bars to be followed by deportation. He appealed the ruling in April while insisting he was innocent. The Appeals Court has overlooked his plea.

The sergeant said he was on duty in Al Quoz combing the area as part of a police campaign on lawbreakers and residency law violators when he and his colleagues spotted and suspected the defendant.

“I showed him my military ID and notified him we were policemen. He set off running. I ran after him and tried seizing him. He violently resisted and thrust a punch in my face then continued running.

“He was running and dodging us when he knocked a Pickup vehicle parked in the area.

He fell to the ground,” explained the sergeant, adding that they apprehended him and took him to the police station.

The sergeant’s colleague gave a similar narration and said he too showed the defendant his military ID and told him to surrender but he refused and ran away. “He resisted arrest and punched the sergeant.” A forensic report showed the sergeant sustained ingernail scratches that took around 20 days to heal. The defendant acknowledged the escape attempt during prosecution interrogations.