Jury orders unruly businessman’s deportation

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A businessman who identified himself as ‘Hell’ and tore a policeman’s uniform during a standoff must be deported, a jury ruled on Thursday.

The European defendant, 42, assaulted an on-duty policeman attached to a police station in Dubai. He grabbed him by the neck while inside a police station’s detention ward, insulted him and ripped his uniform.

At the Criminal Court he denied. The court found him guilty of assault, issuing insults and damaging a police uniform. It handed him a suspended three month prison term. However, it ordered he be deported.

On the record, at around 8am on Jul.1 the Omani policeman, 25, and a Yemeni colleague were in a patrol vehicle combing Al Muraqqabat area for lawbreakers when they spotted a screaming cabbie on Rigga Street.

He waved his hand calling upon both police officers to intervene. They went and asked him what was wrong. He told them the defendant declined to get out or pay a Dhs24.50 fare from Bur Dubai to Rigga Street.

The policeman’s colleague said, “As the cabbie complained to us, the defendant fell asleep in the cab. We woke him up. He was inebriated.” During interrogations he confessed to have abused alcohol at a hotel. The policeman explained, “I talked to the defendant and detected he was abnormal and smelling alcohol. On asking him about his residence, he replied us with mockery saying ‘I reside inside the police station.”

The policeman asked him his name. “My name is Hell,” he replied then changed to “Sheep.” He asked him to get out. He refused to. After repeated orders he agreed to get out and was taken to the police station.

Policemen had him sit at the reception. He derided them in the middle of the public and demanded to know who their employer was. He refused to stop shouting and pelted police officers with insults.

A colonel ordered he be taken to the personal status office. He resisted. They managed to shackle him and take him inside the detention ward after stiff resistance. He again insulted the policeman and his colleague.

When a warrant officer opened and entered, he tried to run outside. They stopped him. During the scuffle, he grabbed the policeman’s neck. The warrant officer and a corporal intervened to free the policeman.

The policeman sustained nail marks and scratches on his neck, part of which reddened. He ended up in hospital. “He damaged my badge and tore my uniform,” he complained. A hospital report discussed scratches.