Seven-year sentence in fatal stabbing

Two men are convicted of killing a third after an argument escalated.

DUBAI // Two men were convicted this morning of stabbing to death a Somali man and sentenced to seven years in prison each.

After the announcement of the verdict, the mother of the victim, identified as Ahmed Sulaiman, started screaming and crying.

“There is no justice except that of God,” the mother screamed. “Why not death, my son is gone, my son is gone, he is gone, and all they get is seven years."

The defendants, the Abu Dhabi-born Somalian AO, 24, and his compatriot AM, 26, denied the charges when they appeared in court in December.

AO told prosecutors he did not intend to kill Mr Sulaiman but was defending himself during a fight.

“He pulled a knife on us during the fight. I stabbed him with a metal pike in his chest, I did not want to kill him,” AO told prosecutors.

The murder took place in the Naif district of Diera. A police officer told prosecutors a bystander who heard screams and saw the two men pull the victim in to a building reported the attack.

AO and AM said that they went to see Mr Sulaiman at a woman’s flat in Naif. The three argued and were kicked out by the flat owner, and at that point, a fight broke out.

AM denied the stabbing altogether. But AO said that when he was attacked with the knife, he stabbed Mr Sulaiman, then held him so AM could stab him with a broken alcohol bottle.

Both will be deported after serving their jail terms.