DUBAI // A nurse who stabbed his friend to death with a potato peeler then tried to flee the country has been sentenced to five years in prison. OJ, 39, a Filipino, stabbed LJ three times in the chest during a dinner party at the nurse's home on October 3 last year.
Four hours in to the party an argument erupted between the pair and the nurse stabbed his guest with the potato peeler.
"I didn't meant to kill him, it happened by accident while I was drunk," recalled the nurse.
The stabbed man managed to stagger back to his flat, on the sixth floor of the same building, and collapsed at his front door.
JM, a Filipino, who had also attended the party, found his unconscious body and called police. The man was taken to hospital but died on arrival.
Police arrested the nurse at 7.30am the next day at Dubai International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to the Philippines.
The Criminal Court found the nurse guilty of murder and illegal consumption of alcohol.
The nurse will be deported after serving his prison term.
wissa@thenational.ae.