DUBAI // Prosecutors have lost their appeal for the death penalty for a security guard convicted of stabbing his roommate to death.
Dubai Court of Appeal upheld the life sentence for the 45-year-old Egyptian after he admitted stabbing his roommate but denied premeditated murder.
“I don’t have any bad history with him and I didn’t plan to kill him. I did attack him and, at that specific moment, I meant to end his life but I didn’t plan it ahead of time,” said the guard.
On December 18, 2015, the guard stabbed and killed the Nepalese man in the back and chest in the room they shared in Al Qusais.
An Indian salesman, 32, said he heard screams from outside his apartment.
“I saw a man’s body in a pool of blood on the floor,” he said. The police and an ambulance arrived and took the man to hospital.
An Emirati policeman, 28, said the Egyptian was arrested the same day. “He confessed to stabbing the Nepalese victim but gave several scenarios about what happened. He said the two had a dispute but did not elaborate,” he said.
A 29-year-old police officer said the guard admitted he had planned the murder two days before because the Nepalese man sexually assaulted him.
“He told me that if he had the chance, he would have cut his head off,” said the officer.
The guard will be deported after serving his prison sentence, which is 25 years.
salamir@thenational.ae
