Drunk cook who drowned colleague in Arabian Gulf loses sentence appeal

The 30-year-old cook was sentenced to 10 years in jail by Dubai Criminal Court for killing his colleague by repeatedly pushing his head underwater in the Arabian Gulf until the man died.

DUBAI // A Kenyan cook has lost his appeal against a 10-year sentence for drowning a colleague by repeatedly pushing his head under water at Jumeirah beach.

The man, 30, was at the beach on January 22 last year with two other Kenyan cooks, aged 25 and 30, who worked at the same restaurant.

A medical report found the victim had high levels of alcohol in his system and there were no signs of assault, so it looked like a simple case of drowning.

But an eyewitness, another cook and the owner of the restaurant started asking questions. They found out that two of the cooks had gone for a swim but only one came back.

“When the others asked him about the missing man he said he didn’t know, then took his belongings then left,” said an Emirati policeman.

But the third cook told another workmate that he saw the killer repeatedly pushing the other man’s head under water.

“So after the man told me about what he saw, I told the restaurant owner that this was a murder,” said his workmate, 26.

He told the Italian restaurant owner who reported it to police.

The killer had denied premeditated murder, saying that he was playing with his colleague when he pushed him under water, but that he did not kill him.

He was also convicted of drinking alcohol without a licence and was fined Dh1,000.

The two others at the beach were found guilty of aiding and abetting for failing to alert authorities.

The killer will be deported after serving his prison sentence.