Prisoners on cell fire charges face longer sentences

Two jail inmates may may be given extended terms after allegedly starting fires in their cells in separate incidents last year.

DUBAI // Two jail inmates may may be given extended sentences after allegedly starting fires in their cells in separate incidents last year.  The convicted arsonist, S B, 30, was charged yesterday with damaging public property and arson after allegedly setting his Central Prison cell ablaze last June. The 23-year-old Emirati A H was charged with endangering the lives of other prisoners, damaging public property, arson and threatening a police officer after being accused of burning his Bur Dubai police station holding cell last August.

A police lieutenant told prosecutors that A H had asked to be taken to a hospital because of his injuries. The defendant then threatened to burn the police station down when police refused to take him to hospital because the injuries were not serious. A H, who had claimed to be psychologically unstable, then set fire to his bed after being transferred to a solitary confinement cell, records showed. The reason for his incarceration was not given. The case is the third of its kind in recent weeks. A man who set fire to his prison cell in hopes of being released from solitary confinement was sentenced to serve an extra seven years last month. The 32-year-old Emirati inmate S I, who had been serving a life sentence, is now facing a total of 32 years in jail. Life sentences generally run for 25 years in the UAE.