The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A blacksmith who slayed a labourer for groping him and knifed the labourer’s countryman for declining to give him way won a reduced penalty on Wednesday.

The Asian defendant, 22, was in the stairway of a worker’s accommodation in Al Quoz Industrial area at around 10:30am on May.9.2018 when victim allegedly groped him and pestered him for an affair.

They had a heated argument. The defendant knifed the victim to death and knifed his countryman in the back and thigh. He, the deceased victim and the countryman had abused alcohol that day.

The defendant’s bid to murder the countryman fell flat after the latter escaped and ran inside his room. He was ambulanced to hospital where he responded to swift medical intervention, records revealed.

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the defendant to 25 years in jail plus deportation over murder and attempted murder charges. The Appeals Court commuted the term to six years plus deportation.

On the record, an Emirati warrant officer said that a source alerted a pursuit team the defendant was hiding near a prayer house in the area. He confessed to have committed the crimes in question.

He revealed he purchased alcohol from hawkers behind the accommodation and drank it. He climbed the stairs on his way to his room. He found the victim and his countryman sitting in the stairway.

They refused to let him pass. The victim seized his leg and started feeling it up and down while asking him to first sit with them for a while. He perceived the victim wanted an indecent physical act.

He told him he did not want to sit. The victim pestered him to and touched him inappropriately.  He boiled with anger, went down the stairs and used the other side’s stairway. He fetched a knife.

The victim asked him to sit. He asked why. The victim stretched his hand and groped him again. He pulled out the knife. They tried to flee. He stabbed them then hurled the knife within parked trucks and ran away.