Carpenter who tried to kill boss in Dubai has suspended three-month jail term upheld

A carpenter who tried to kill the owner of the workshop where he worked will serve a three-month suspended jail sentence after prosecutors lost their appeal.

The 26-year-old Pakistani denied a charge of attempted murder in both Dubai Criminal Court and Dubai Court of Appeals, telling the judges it was an equal fight when he hit him over the head with a large wooden stick.

“We were both hitting each other and when I hit him I didn’t mean or intend to kill him,” he said.

Records show that the incident occurred at 11pm on March 6 this year at the workshop in Deira

“I was closing down my shop when I heard screams coming for the next shop. I went over and saw the victim on the floor bleeding heavily from the head and I saw his attacker standing nearby,” said an Afghan man, 26.

He said he called police and an ambulance took the man to hospital while police arrested the attacker who had stayed in the shop.

The boss, an Afghani whose age was not disclosed in records, remained in hospital for more than two months and underwent two surgeries after he was found to be suffering from a skull fracture and a tumour that had to be removed.

A medical report issued in May last year by Rashid Hospital said the first surgery was to remove the tumour from the man’s brain and to install a device to ease the pressure in his skull. The report said he needed a second surgery to replace part of the skull with a metal plate that eventually had to be removed after becoming infected.

"He was receiving antibiotic to control the infection and we advise that after the treatment of the infection is successful, another surgery is carried out to again install the metal part in the skull. A period of six months should pass before this surgery is carried out to avoid any further infections," read the report.
Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the attacker to three months in jail followed by deportation, but it suspended the jail term. Prosecutors appealed, seeking a harsher sentence but it was upheld by Court of Appeal.

The verdict can be appealed again within 14 days with the Court of Cassation.