DUBAI // A man who claimed an attempt to shoot his cousin with a rifle was "a joke" was yesterday sentenced to eight months in jail.
AS, a 21-year-old Emirati student was playing on his PlayStation with a number of friends when his cousin, the unemployed 25-year-old JR, turned up at his house drunk.
"He started making problems with everyone in the room," said the student, adding that he asked his cousin to leave. His cousin initially refused but was eventually forced to go. However, he returned half an hour later and knocked on the now-locked door of the student's room.
When the student opened the door his cousin pointed a rifle at his head.
The student pushed the rifle upwards and a gun shot hit his wardrobe. The student and his friends then called police.
The cousin's lawyer Saeed Al Ghilani told the Criminal Court that it was the student's fault the rife fired.
"My client did not mean to shoot but when [the student] pulled the gun up, he forced the gun to fire," said Mr Al Ghilani.
"The two of them were joking with each other when [the student] kicked my client out of the house. [JR] brought the gun but did not intend to fire it or else he would have done so the moment he opened the door," added Mr Al Ghilani.
He said that the student had signed a waiver which proved the cousin was not guilty of attempted murder, as the prosecution alleged.
The cousin admitted possessing charges but denied attempted murder and a charge of posing a risk to life. His lawyer said that one of the guns was given to his father by a sheikh and that when his father died the gun was not returned.
He was sentenced to six months for attempted murder and posing a risk to life and a further two months for possessing two rifles - an A.301 P. Beretta and an RS 800 - and ammunition without a licence.
salamir@thenational.ae