DUBAI // An accountant will spend a year in jail after being convicted of threatening to kill a man with a knife while drunk and demanding he pay Dh5,000 not to kill him.
A A, 31, from the Comoros Islands, was charged with consuming alcohol and attacking his victim, 52-year-old Emirati A K A, on November 28, 2014. He denied the charge when he appeared before Dubai Criminal Court in March this year.
“I was leaving a hotel in Al Qusais about 2am when a man appeared and asked my name. He asked if I was from Sharjah and I said yes. Then he told me he had a weapon and so I better walk with him,” said the victim.
A A then waved a knife and told him he had been paid Dh5,000 by a number of people in return for killing him.
“He asked me to pay him more so he wouldn’t kill me. He also claimed that he didn’t care since he had a criminal record. Besides, no-one would know he killed me,” said A K A, who managed to run away and alert security guards.
The manager of the dance club where A K A was at that night testified that A A had been causing a disturbance.
“He had an altercation with one of the guards and I warned him against that. But minutes later I saw him as he approached A K A and took him to a corner,” said Syrian A M A, 51.
Five minutes later, A M A said, he saw A K A run outside and he approached A A to ask what had happened.
“I told him he had been pushing customers away and asked him to sit or I will have him thrown out. At that moment I was told he had a knife, so we called police,” said A M A.
A A will be deported after serving his jail term. He was also fined Dh2,000 for drinking alcohol without a licence.
salamir@thenational.ae
