An unemployed man sentenced to seven years in prison for stabbing his roommate to death has had his sentence upheld.
The Pakistani defendant, who was drunk at the time of the attack, caused the deadly row after turning on a light while his friends were sleeping.
The 37-year-old had only arrived in the UAE two days before the incident in an effort to find work in the Emirates.
But after stumbling back to his accommodation late and drunk, he woke his Indian victim by talking loudly on his phone and turning on a light.
When other roommates asked him to be quiet he ignored them, triggering a fight.
“I awoke to loud noise coming from an adjacent room where the incident happened,” said a 46-year-old witness.
“As he [the defendant] walked towards the corridor [to leave] he was vowing to return and beat up all the room’s occupants, so the victim followed him and they fought again.”
The trial heard how the defendant then opened a suitcase, pulled out a knife and stabbed his victim before trying to escape.
But an Egyptian security guard along with a number of other workers were able to corner him until police arrived.
Appearing at Dubai Criminal and Appeal courts, the man denied a charge of physical assault causing death, but admitted consuming alcohol.
Judges dismissed his appeal however, and ordered that he complete his sentence before being deported.