DUBAI // An Egyptian cook who was sentenced to life in jail for fatally stabbing a flatmate and causing serious injury to another must see out his prison term, Dubai Court of Appeals has ruled.
Dubai Criminal Court convicted the killer, 26, of the murder of the Jordanian flatmate and the attempted murder of an Egyptian.
At 5.30am on September 16, 2015, the cook stabbed the Jordanian in the neck and abdomen with a kitchen knife before stabbing his Egyptian flatmate in the chest and abdomen at their apartment in Al Barsha.
An Indian flatmate of theirs said he heard screams. When he switched on the lights, he saw the Jordanian bleeding from the neck.
“He then fell unconscious, so I called police right away,” he said.
Officers found the Jordanian’s body in the flat while the Egyptian victim was found bleeding heavily in a flat next door.
He was taken to hospital and underwent emergency surgery.
“At dawn, the lights were off and suddenly I heard the Jordanian talking to the defendant, asking him ‘Why? Why?’” said the Egyptian victim.
“Then as I got up to check what was going on, he [the Egyptian assailant] attacked me with a knife.”
The killer, who was arrested that day, said he stabbed his flatmates because he overheard them saying that they had raped him while he was asleep.
The appeals court upheld his life sentence. He will be deported after completing his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae