Bootleggers beat man to death by 'mistake', Dubai court told

AS and MA beat their fellow bootlegger KK on the head with a stick and left him unconscious and bleeding in the industrial area of Jebel Ali last December.

DUBAI // Two bootleggers who beat a man to death fearing he would report them to police killed him "by mistake", a court heard today.

AS, 41 and MA, 30, both from Pakistan beat their compatriot and fellow bootlegger KK on the head with a stick and left him unconscious and bleeding in the industrial area of Jebel Ali on December 2 last year. But they told the Criminal Court they did not meant to kill him.

"He knew that we were in the bootlegging business and that we also drank alcohol, so we were afraid that he would report us to police. We had a heated argument with him and he assaulted us and we assaulted him back but we did not mean to kill him," the men testified.

An Indian blacksmith PR, 23, saw the man motionless and bleeding and called the emergency services who took him to Rashid Hospital where he remained in a coma for a few days.

Police identified the man when two men visited him in hospital. The visitors informed the police the man was in the bootlegging business and that a friend of theirs had told them he was in the hospital.

Police then interviewed the man's friends and identified the AS and MA as his attackers. The victim died in hospital.

A verdict is expected on May 8.