Brothers accused of stabbing a man to death over a Dh1.3m dispute

The two allegedly strangled the man with a scarf before stabbing him in the head, losing the blade inside the victim's skull

Two brothers are accused of strangling a Pakistani man with a scarf before stabbing him to death over a Dh1 million dispute, heard Dubai Criminal Court.

Court records show that at 11.15pm on October 9 this year, the two Afghani men, aged 19 and 23, were spotted by a security guard in Al Mamzar Centre’s car park while dragging a man’s body.

“I rushed there and called for my colleague. Once we arrived, the two men saw us and dropped the body, then got into a Range Rover and sped off,” said the 27-year-old Pakistani guard.

“He (the victim) was topless and suffered stab wounds in the head. We called police at once,” said the guard.

Officers arrived to the scene and so did an ambulance that took the body to the morgue.

Investigators checked the CCTV footage and managed to trace the car through its number plate.

“We saw the victim running topless and a man carrying a scarf chasing him, before catching up and strangling him with the scarf. When the victim fell down, apparently unconscious, the attacker walked back to the car, then returned carrying a knife and stabbed the deceased several times,” said an Emirati CID lieutenant, 43.

He said a second man then appeared and both men started dragging the body, but dropped it when they saw guards and sped off.

Investigators found that one of the attackers owned a shop in the mall. The mens' identity was revealed and their place of residence was located in Naif; however, they were not found at their apartment.

“We discovered that they were hiding in Al Ain’s Industrial area and preparing to flee the country, so we arranged with Abu Dhabi police to apprehended them the following day,” said the lieutenant.

“The 19-year-old told us that he had arrived to the country a year ago after his brother was scammed by a man in a car-park project,” added the lieutenant.

The defendant said in records that his brother (the 23-year-old defendant) had agreed with the victim to sort out the problem with the man who had conned him, and he would help retrieve the Dh1.3m in return for Dh300,000.

“He told us that the deceased soon began stalling, despite being paid Dh150,000 in advance,” said the lieutenant.

He added that the brothers then visited the victim, whose age was not disclosed in records, in his office on the day of the murder. He asked them for the rest of the payment to help them get back their money, which angered them.

“The defendants admitted during questioning that they tricked the victim into their car after promising to pay him the rest of his fees in their shop in Al Mamzar Centre. But once they arrived to the mall’s car park, they killed him using a knife, which the 19-year-old admitted buying five days earlier with the intent to kill the victim if he didn't help them,” said the lieutenant.

He said the younger defendant told police that a few days before the murder, he told his brother about his intentions, but his brother did not agree. “He said that his brother told him this is Dubai not Afghanistan. Had they been in Afghanistan, they would cut the man into little pieces, but they cant do that in Dubai," said the lieutenant.

A medical report said the metal part of the knife used in the stabbing had broken inside the victim’s skull and had the 19-year-old defendant’s fingerprints on it. 

In court this Thursday morning, the younger defendant admitted to a premeditated murder charge, but told judges that his brother didn’t take part in the murder.

The next hearing will be on January 18 to allow the defendants to appoint a lawyer.