A jobless Nigerian bootlegger who attacked an on-duty police officer and caused him a permanent disability has had his sentence doubled.
Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the 37-year-old defendant to six months in jail, which he appealed but that backfired when the appeals court doubled it to a year.
The criminal court was told that on August 18 last year, Naif police station was tipped off about the man’s bootlegging activities from men in his community.
When he was arrested, he had 20 bottles of alcohol to sell.
“I was assigned along with other officers to raid the place where we were told the man had been selling liquor to others,” said the Emirati victim, 21.
He added that, as he and fellow officers arrived, the defendant was seen sitting behind a number of boxes filled with alcohol, which he sold to passers-by.
“When we walked towards him, another Nigerian man screamed to alert him but I caught him, he resisted me, punched me in the stomach then kicked me so hard and threw me to the floor and sat on top of me, breaking my arm and leg,” said the officer.
Despite his injuries, he said he kept hanging on to the defendant until his colleagues restrained him and took him into custody.
The Nigerian who yelled to alert the bootlegger was also apprehended and referred to the misdemeanours court on charges of illegal possession of alcohol.
An ambulance took the officer to hospital, where he received treatment and was later told that his left ankle had lost full mobility, which a report deemed a 15 per cent disability.
The accused was convicted of assaulting the officer and bootlegging and sentenced to six months in jail, followed by deportation.
He appealed and lost as Dubai Court of Appeal increased his sentence to a year in jail, after which he will be deported.
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By Tim Murphy
(Grove Press)
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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
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Company profile
Name: Infinite8
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Launch year: 2017
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Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
