Man gets life term for killing flatmate

Prosecutors win appeal against 10-year sentence for accused who pushed victim out of window for not fetching him water

Aworker, who pushed his flatmate from the second floor of a building, killing him, lost his appeal and will serve life in prison, a court ruled yesterday.

In October last year, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the 30-year-old Indian worker for 10 years for premeditatedly killing his countryman flatmate.

The defendant and the victim had consumed alcohol together in January 2017 and when the flatmate asked the worker to bring him water, the latter refused.

The victim used foul language and cursed the worker’s family. The 30-year-old accused was infuriated by the remarks and lifted and threw his flatmate from the second-floor window at Dubai Investment Park.

Prosecutors appealed the primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to have the punishment stiffened.

Presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif accepted the prosecutors’ appeal and increased the 10-year jail term to life imprisonment.

Police had suspected foul play and further interrogations exposed that four flatmates [including the defendant and the victim] had consumed liquor that evening and the defendant was the last person present with the deceased in the flat.

When he defended himself before the appellate court, the defendant pleaded not guilty.

A sergeant testified, “Upon questioning, the accused said he had a heated argument with the victim who cursed him for not bringing water to drink. The defendant claimed he got angry when the deceased told him that he would have sex with his mother and sisters. The accused said the victim had beaten him and repeatedly cursed his family before he hurled him from the second floor. He further claimed that the victim was too drunk to resist him. During questioning, the defendant claimed that after he threw the victim, he looked at him from the window and then went to sleep.”