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29 March 2024

18 killers of Dubai prison inmate acquitted on lack of evidence

Published
By Eman Al Baik

Eighteen prisoners from different nationalities were acquitted by the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance from the accusation of stabbing to death a 42-year-old Emirati prisoners, AA, and of assaulting other prisoners.

The murder followed fights between two prison gangs.

The gang of a rival prisoner was accused of stabbing AA  37 times on August 20, 2012, the second day of Eid Al Fitr in revenge for chopping off the finger of the 31-year old Emirati, RM.

Five other prisoners identified as ZS, 27, Georgian; PK, 32, Uzbekistani; SE, 29, and JP, 40, ;Russians; and EM, 31, Kyrgyzstani, who are all part of the victim’s gang, were acquitted from the accusation of attempting to kill RM.

The court found that CCTV footage from the prison’s ward D was not sufficient evidence to identify who the killers were. It is impossible for police, prosecutors and forensic experts to confidently identify the victim’s killers, according to the court’s ruling.

The accused in the murder of AA are aged between 21 and 55 and they were from different nationalities including UAE, Russia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan.

According to the records, a fight occurred between members of the two gangs, eight of the accused went to their wards and took different weapons including knives and wooden bar, a steel dish and went to the victim’s ward.

Four including the rival gang’s leader RM dragged the victim from his cell and started beating and stabbing him.  Then other 14 prisoners joined in by kicking and beating the victim.

The victim received stabs in his belly, chest head and neck. Some accused chopped off part of the victim’s ear in addition to his finger.

“While they were stabbing him, one of them was cutting his ear off and a second cut off his finger whereas those who did not have weapons beat the victim with their hands and kicked him with their legs until he fell in a pool of blood not moving,” a police officer told investigators.

The victim sustained 37 wounds at different parts of his body that caused his death.

Other side brawls broke out and some inmates sustained injuries.

Policemen intervened and rushed the victim and others to the hospital.

A 21-year-old policeman was in-charge of controlling the gates between the different wards and failed to prevent the attack. He was terminated after the incident as he failed to control the rush of the attackers into the victim’s ward.

Some of the accused rushed behind an Indian prisoner who came back into the ward and he was unable to control them.

As he ran after them, he left the gate open and so the rest rushed into the ward. They also threatened the policeman.