Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A youth implicated in a bid to murder a student during a dispute over a girl will spend six months in the dock, a court ruled on Sunday.

The unemployed Arab defendant, 19, knifed the Emirati, 17, at a mall in Downtown Dubai at around 10pm on April 20, Bur Dubai Police Station records showed. Two young cohorts were sent to the Juveniles Court

The murder bid fell flat after an ambulance rushed him to hospital. The defendant did not enter a plea against the charge at the Dubai Criminal Court. The court imprisoned him and ordered the knife be confiscated.

In prosecution records, the student was walking along with his friend inside the mall when a strange man came and asked them for a discussion. Upon the man’s request, they walked out of the mall towards its gate.

They were met by a group of nearly six men asking the student about which school he attended. His friend, anticipating trouble, pulled him away but one of the men called upon him to resume a one-on-one discussion.

Some of the men walked away leaving three others including the defendant behind. The student went to them. “Two of them pushed me several times. The defendant suddenly pulled out a knife from inside his pocket.

“He stabbed me in the waist,” the student complained, adding that he escaped from them and ran towards the corridor leading to a nearby hotel.

He collapsed. Police arrived. An ambulance rushed him to hospital.

His friend gave a similar narration and added, “I had pulled the student away to avoid problems. One of them called him back and pushed him. I stood between them. The defendant pulled out a knife and stabbed him.”

An Emirati sergeant said surveillance footage helped identify three attackers including the defendant. Police arrested them in Al Quoz, frisked the defendant and found him with the knife he admitted to have used.

During police interrogations, the first suspect revealed they went to the mall to meet the victim and discuss a solution to a dispute over a girl.

“We slapped and punched him. The defendant stabbed him,” said the suspect.

“I stepped in to stop the problem from escalating,” he argued. On his part, the defendant argued that during the dispute, the victim and his friend pushed him, provoking him into pulling out his knife. “He revealed to have chased the victim to stab him again,” said the sergeant.