DUBAI // A 22-year-old electrician slashed his colleague’s throat after an argument about the latter’s smelly feet, a Dubai court heard on Wednesday.
On July 26 last year, the Pakistani defendant and his countryman were on their midday break when they headed to a rest area on their worksite in Al Rashidiyah.
Both men laid down to sleep in the cramped conditions but the defendant then asked his colleague, Mohammed Zeeb Bahader, to move his feet away from him as they smelled very bad.
“Other workers told me the two men engaged in a heated argument then in a fist fight when the deceased refused to move away his feet then insulted the defendant’s family,” said the Syrian supervisor at the worksite, who headed to the room when he learnt of the fight.
When he got to the room, the Syrian said the defendant had left moments before he arrived but the fatal attack had not yet happened.
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“I had them all leave the room and take a rest outside, then I was walking towards my car when a worker ran towards me and said the defendant attacked the deceased with a blade,” said the supervisor, who rushed back and handed the victim a scarf to wrap around his wound, which was bleeding heavily, before he called for an ambulance.
However, by the time paramedics arrived, the man was already dead.
“We got there and saw the victim on the ground and the defendant standing next him,” said a police officer.
A co-worker said the two men had never fought before. “When the fight happened, the defendant left the room then we were all evicted from the room and, as we were walking out, he came from behind and attacked our colleague,” said the Pakistani worker.
The policeman said: “He was denying the attack although his clothes were bloodied and the blade was found next to him at the crime scene. Then he confessed and said he got furious when the man insulted him family.”
At Dubai Criminal Court on Wednesday the accused denied a premeditated murder charge.
“I was defending myself and I didn’t mean to end his life,” he told judges.
The next hearing will be on March 29 to appoint him a lawyer.
salamir@thenational.ae
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Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
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A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
