A caregiver has been accused of murdering an old Emirati man at his home in Dubai.
Dubai Criminal Court heard that the Pakistani man, 29, strangled the Emirati using his ezar – a long waist-wrapper worn under the kandura.
The worker denied a charge of premeditated murder.
The incident occurred on June 15, after the man's second wife left him with the caregiver and went shopping.
When the woman returned two hours later she was informed of her husband’s death by the caregiver.
“I met the accused as I was entering the villa and he told me my husband was unconscious,” the Iranian woman, 42, told the court.
She found her husband, who suffered from diabetes, on the floor in the two-bedroom apartment attached to their villa in the Hor Al Anz area.
“I thought he had fallen,” she said.
The woman called an ambulance and her step sons.
“It was when my brother hugged him that I noticed a piece of cloth and the ezar around my father’s neck,” one of the sons said.
He said he asked the worker what happened.
“But he just laughed,” the son, 22, said.
“I started thinking about how a month before the incident, my father told me the worker was abusive and often choked and pushed him.”
Police officers arrested the caregiver the next day.
“During questioning, he claimed he was repeatedly abused by the victim,” a policeman said.
“On the day of the murder, the accused said he was provoked after the old man allegedly assaulted him.”
The accused told investigators he got into a fight with the Emirati after being asked to prepare tea and shisha.
“He said his employer accused him of taking a long time to prepare the tea and then tripped while trying to hit him,” the officer said.
The worker said he acted in self-defence after his employer tried to strangle him.
“During police questioning, he admitted taking the ezar from the victim’s hand to strangle him,” the officer said.
The next hearing is on November 15.
