A knife-wielding attacker has walked free from a court after his victim forgave him in the spirit of Ramadan.
The Pakistani fruit and vegetable trader, 21, was first spared punishment by Dubai Criminal Court despite stabbing a colleague in the chest following a row over a cart.
The incident happened on January 16 as the victim, 24, pushed goods into a shop where he worked.
But the two men began fighting when the attacker insisted the cart was his and he wanted it back.
“He was saying that the cart was his but I said no and resumed my work,” the victim said in court records. "He pushed me and we both started fighting."
The court heard how a number of witnesses helped break up the fight before calling an ambulance when they noticed one man had been stabbed.
One man, aged 22, told the hearing: "We separated the two men and then the victim fell to the ground. I saw blood on his shirt but didn't know he'd been stabbed.
“As I walked back to my shop, I saw a small knife on the ground but didn't connect the dots."
Police arrived and the attacker was arrested as his victim was rushed to Rashid Hospital to undergo emergency surgery.
Medical reports showed the knife pierced the right ventricle of the man's heart and he was lucky to have survived.
Appearing in court to answer the charges, the defendant denied an attempted murder charge and said he had not intended to stab his colleague.
Dubai Criminal Court found the man not guilty but prosecutors appealed the ruling. On Wednesday, Dubai Court of Appeal court upheld the acquittal.