Man killed friend in drunken fight, Dubai court hears

DUBAI // A drunken fight between two friends ended with one man dead, a court heard.

Prosecutors said that on September 24 last year, L T, 26, from Nepal, got into a fight with R S, who was in his 30s, after R S swore at him.

L T hit R S with a bottle before sitting on his back and burying his head in the sand.

“After he started cursing me, I lost my mind,” said L T, who is unemployed, to the presiding judge.

Emirati police officer A A, 28, told prosecutors he responded to a report that a dead body had been found at 6.30pm in a sandy plot in Al Quoz used as a parking area for trucks,

“We found the deceased topless between two trucks with blood in his mouth and in other places on his body.”

Officers discovered that R S, whose nationality was not mentioned in court records, frequented the parking lot with another man. The pair would drink alcohol together and sleep under the lorries.

L T was arrested two days later in the same parking lot, sat under a truck.

He told police that he had met R S two weeks ago. On the day of the incident, the deceased had woken up L T at 7am and they drank a bottle of alcohol under the shade of a tree.

“We went for a walk and I bought another bottle of alcohol and we kept drinking until 12pm,” said L T.

When L T tried to stop R S from drinking any more because he was extremely drunk, the victim swore at him.

“I punched him in the face and then I hit him with the bottle on his head. He then fell down and I continued kicking him,” L T told police.

Police officer M W, 38, told prosecutors that L T sat on the victim’s back and pushed his head in the sand.

“I saw R S was having a hard time breathing,” said L T. “I flipped him over and took off his shirt to help him breathe. I ran to a supermarket and bought a lemon and water and I put squeezed the juice into his mouth but he was not breathing.”

Records said that L T ran from the scene but returned in the evening and saw police and ambulances. “I knew R S was dead when I saw the police and emergency crews,” L T said.

A coroner’s report concluded that the cause of death was asphyxiation.

L T entered a plea of not guilty to a murder charge a the Dubai Criminal Court. The case was adjourned to May 10 to assign a lawyer to defend L T.