A Nepalese man who stabbed his roommate to death after being fined Dh20 for smoking has been sentenced to life in prison.
Dubai Criminal Court heard how the man, a cleaner, was caught with a cigarette in the laundry room of his accommodation block in March last year.
After being told the area was off-limits to smokers, he was issued with a fine by his supervisor and told to go back to his room.
But once there, the man, 23, lashed out at a colleague and used a knife to stab him eight times in the stomach.
“I saw him smoking and took him to my office and issued him with a fine,” the accused’s supervisor told the court.
“Then I sent him to his room, which he shared with the victim.”
Minutes later, witnesses described hearing loud screams coming from inside the bedroom.
The victim, whose age and nationality were not disclosed, staggered into a shared corridor and called for help.
“I rushed outside and saw the victim bleeding heavily. He was repeating ‘help, I was stabbed’,” the supervisor said.
Appearing in court in August last year, the Nepalese man denied a charge of premeditated murder.
But on Wednesday, he was convicted of the killing and ordered to serve life in prison.
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
Company profile
Name: Tratok Portal
Founded: 2017
Based: UAE
Sector: Travel & tourism
Size: 36 employees
Funding: Privately funded
