Boy tells Dubai court: 'I was not trying to kill myself'

A teenage boy slit his wrists with a razor blade and laughed as police officers rushed to help, hears court.

DUBAI // A runaway teenage boy who slashed one of his wrists at a police station told a court he was not trying to commit suicide.

OS, a 36-year-old policeman at Al Qusais police station, said he was on his evening shift on August 11 when the Emirati ME, 17, arrived of his own accord and asked if he could stay at the Central Prison.

"He told me he should be at the detention centre because he had had a dispute with his family and he did not wish to go home," said the policeman.

He put the teenager in a room at the station while he called his family to pick him up. However, when he looked around he saw the boy cutting his left wrist with a razor blade.

"He told me he hid the blade in his mouth," said the policeman He added that the boy told him he would kill himself if he was not sent to the prison.

The teenager denied an attempted suicide charge, saying he did not mean to end his life, but admitted cutting himself. "I hated myself then because of my problems with my family so I cut myself with a blade," he said. "I wasn't aware of what I was doing."

The teenager claimed he had been beaten by officers at the anti-drugs department before his arrival at the police station, but denied being on drugs.

He is receiving treatment at Rashid Hospital and the Misdemeanours Court scheduled a verdict for November 20.